Reddit to fully encrypt traffic
Reddit, the self-described “front page of the Internet,” will start encrypting all of its traffic by the end of the month, joining other major Internet players that have made similar moves in recent months. — “We're ready to enforce that everyone use …
Context & Ripple Effects
Reddit's pledge to encrypt everything by month's end lands two months after Google committed to encrypting the vast majority of ads on its platforms by June 30, which matters because most Reddit pageviews carry third-party ad and script calls that full-site HTTPS forces into encrypted channels too. The move is part of a visible 2015 wave among major Internet platforms rather than an isolated decision.
The arc continues within months: CEO Steve Huffman pairs a privacy policy update honoring Do Not Track with public advice to run browser extensions that block third-party scripts and cookies — framing encryption as step one of a broader privacy posture. Two years later, Pornhub, YouPorn, and RedTube switching to HTTPS by default shows the same migration reaching sites with the least incentive to advertise it.
First-order effects
- Reddit users on shared or monitored networks lose passive visibility into their browsing once enforcement begins, and any network-level content injection into Reddit pages stops working.
- Third-party ad and analytics providers embedded in Reddit pages must serve over encrypted connections or lose access, directly affected by Google's parallel June 30 ads-encryption deadline.
Second-order effects
- Non-encrypting platforms become the outliers: once high-traffic defaults like Reddit and Google's ad stack are locked in, laggard sites face user and advertiser pressure to follow Pornhub's 2017 path.
- Advertisers lose plaintext referral and on-page signals from Reddit inventory, shifting measurement toward encrypted-friendly methods that the big ad platforms control.
Third-order effects
- If the 2015–2017 pattern holds, HTTPS flips from differentiator to baseline expectation, and platform privacy posture consolidates into explicit policy commitments like Reddit's Do Not Track honor system rather than optional settings.
The trend: Major web platforms are converting encryption from opt-in feature to enforced default, with ad infrastructure and late adopters pulled along behind them.