Earlier this year, in a skincare-focused subreddit, a user asked for opinions on a specific hypochlorous acid spray. Several people shared their experiences. One reply stood out for its measured tone: the commenter said they hadn't tried the brand being asked about, but they had been using a similar spray from Honeydew Labs and really liked it. They gave details about the concentration, mentioned that the product had been accepted by the National Eczema Association, and said it made them feel confident using it on sensitive skin.

The account, called Primary-Taro4254, looked organic at first. But a quick glance at its history showed a pattern. The same user had praised Honeydew Labs in multiple subreddits and on threads about unrelated products. Community members flagged the account as a possible marketing bot. A moderator later said the account had been removed from the subreddit and that Honeydew Labs mentions would now be automatically filtered for review. The brand did not answer a request for comment, and the account did not reply to a message.

Reddit is now AI search's favorite source

Reddit has become one of the most important websites on the internet. For years, users added 'reddit' to the end of their search queries to escape pages stuffed with search-engine optimization junk. Google took notice and began showing Reddit threads prominently in results. More recently, AI chatbots have made Reddit a central part of their answers. According to data compiled by an SEO company, Reddit was the most-cited domain in May by major AI assistants, ahead of news publishers, academic repositories, and Wikipedia.

AI overviews are also being inserted more often into shopping-related searches. That means a product mention on Reddit can end up in front of millions of people through a chatbot answer, even if the original thread has only a few hundred views. For marketers, the incentive is obvious: get a brand mentioned positively on Reddit, and that mention may be picked up by an AI assistant as a trustworthy recommendation.

This has created a new kind of SEO. Instead of focusing only on backlinks, companies are now trying to shape what AI systems say about them. Some practitioners call it answer engine optimization, or AEO; others call it generative engine optimization, or GEO. No one is completely sure what works, but many believe Reddit is central to the formula.

What the new spam looks like

Maya Adivi, a moderator of the skincare community r/SkincareAddiction, says the subreddit has always had to deal with spam and promotion. In the past, the signs were easier to spot: overly glowing reviews, tracking links, or before-and-after photos copied from product listings. The new wave is more subtle.

A suspected spammer might create a thread asking an open-ended question like 'How does everyone keep track of their skincare routine?' At first glance, that looks like normal engagement. Then a series of comments will mention the same app or product. Another common format is a post that says 'I keep seeing ads for this brand. What's your experience with it?' followed by replies that sound like testimonials but use the brand's exact marketing language. Some accounts even mimic the way people prompt an AI chatbot, using broad questions that encourage recommendation-style replies.

'It's a lot more subtle, but we've become more sophisticated as well,' Adivi says.

r/SkincareAddiction prohibits accounts affiliated with brands from posting. Adivi and other moderators often ban accounts that break the rule, especially when they appear to be sock puppets. Brands that are caught trying to secretly promote themselves become 'persona non grata' in the community. Adivi recently learned of a marketing agency that claimed it had targeted and hijacked the subreddit to promote an unknown Korean beauty brand and rank on Google. She removed the thread the agency used and added the brand to the subreddit's keyword filters.

Authentic engagement is still welcome. Brands that ask moderators for permission and are transparent about who they are can sometimes participate, but the bar is high. The community must benefit, not the seller.

Reddit's platform-wide response

Google says it is aware of the problem. A company spokesperson said Search has strong protections against manipulation, including in AI features, and that Reddit gets no special preference in ranking. The spokesperson noted that forum content, like any other content, can be high or low quality, and that Google's systems are designed to recognize when user-generated content is useful.

Reddit has also acknowledged the challenge. In early July, the company said it was upgrading its spam-detection tools with AI models designed to catch subtle, coordinated patterns of fake behavior. According to Reddit, these tools stop 25,000 spammy posts and comments and block 23 million spam views every day. The company declined to share specific signals, saying it did not want to hand a playbook to bad actors.

Those numbers are a reminder of how much commercial activity already exists on the platform. A Reddit spokesperson said that roughly 40 percent of discussions on Reddit are commercial in nature. That does not mean they are all spam; it means members often ask for buying advice, compare products, or share reviews. It also means the line between useful conversation and marketing can blur quickly.

Communities under pressure

The problem extends far beyond skincare. Subreddits dedicated to cleaning, long-lasting goods, food, and sales techniques have all seen warnings about possible AI-driven spam. Members of r/BuyItForLife, a community focused on durable products, have warned about 'ad bots' skewing search results. r/FoodNYC added a rule against brands targeting old posts. A moderator of r/salestechniques posted a 'name and shame' thread listing brands that appeared to be astroturfing the community.

Dan, a moderator of the weight-loss subreddit r/loseit, says he has seen covert promotion for food-scanning apps, body-scanning scales, and GLP-1 providers. He keeps what he calls a 'shit list of brands' that the moderator team believes are trying to secretly advertise. Any mention of those brands is automatically filtered. Dan says brands often reveal themselves by being too polished: they use exact brand names, repeat key selling points, and avoid the casual, imperfect language of a real user.

'The main advantage that we have as people who are trying to stop them from advertising is that they've got an agenda that a normal poster doesn't have,' he says. 'That is usually fundamentally what shines through.'

Dan has also noticed an increase in posts that appear to be AI-generated. He points to tells like a final paragraph beginning with 'I'm curious to know.' His team relies on auto-moderation tools and reports from regular users to catch the posts before they are visible for long.

'We want it to be human to human,' he says. 'That's why I liked that subreddit anyway.'

Brands adapt, but authenticity is hard to fake

Some companies have chosen to create their own subreddits, where they act as moderators and control the conversation. That can give them a presence on Reddit without having to sneak comments into other communities. But it does not carry the same weight as a recommendation from an independent community. Mike Moschella, a director of analytics at a marketing and PR firm, says Reddit is tricky for brands because it is not a place where they can simply post press releases.

'You can't bullshit Reddit,' he says.

Moschella argues that Reddit should push brands to be more honest and specific about price, service, and quality. A company may issue a press release claiming it is the best in its category, but a skeptical community will not accept that if the details do not hold up. In an ideal world, Reddit forces a kind of authenticity that other platforms do not.

Whether that is happening in practice is less certain. The pressure to appear in AI answers has led some brands to push harder, not softer. Smaller brands are often the most aggressive, which is especially frustrating for moderators who want to support independent companies.

Music communities see their own invasion

The music world has felt the same tension. Earlier this year, reports surfaced that a marketing agency had helped create social media buzz around the indie rock band Geese. Some fans felt betrayed when they learned that part of the excitement had been manufactured. The episode prompted moderators of the indie music subreddit r/indieheads to take a closer look at suspicious accounts. They found four accounts within a week that appeared to belong to independent record labels.

Matty Monroe, one of the moderators, says the accounts had random usernames and their entire post histories were filled with comments about artists on their own labels. One comment read: 'I can't wait to preorder this record on Coral Green vinyl.' It sounded exactly like something a social media manager would write. Monroe, who also works in marketing for a music distribution company, recognized the pattern.

The moderators contacted one of the labels and asked them to stop. As a compromise, r/indieheads introduced a label verification process that lets record labels participate while clearly identifying themselves. Dozens of labels have signed up.

Monroe says Reddit has become one of the last places for independent music promotion, especially as traditional publications have cut back. But the platform's power depends on trust. When that trust is broken, the community reacts strongly. Still, he notes that manufactured hype can only go so far.

'What I do hope comes out of this all is just people realizing there's certain things you can't fake in the industry,' he says.

What moderators are protecting

For Adivi, the fight is not just about keeping product feeds clean. She became a moderator because she loved the community's focus on the science behind skincare, with users sharing studies and rigorous breakdowns. That culture is hard to maintain when every detailed post is met with suspicion. She wants to see smaller brands thrive, but the constant stream of fake engagement has made her cautious.

'The unfortunate thing is it does mean I end up being more suspicious of smaller brands, even though I would love to see more small brands out in the world,' she says.

Source: The Verge News