[modinfo]

Reddit isn't saying HTML has a security flaw. The problem, from reddits perspective, is that old reddit makes it easy to scrape a lot of content anonymously. Requiring a login gives reddit an account it can rate limit or ban, while "New" reddit provides more telemetry and anti-bot checks.

The article is right about one thing: JavaScript and frontend bloat do not secure public content. They just make scraping more "expensive"

But frontend design does affect how easily a site can detect and restrict automated traffic. Reddit may have a real abuse problem. Calling the change necessary 'to keep Reddit safe' though, is slippery wording. this is about controlling access to content and automated traffic, not protecting anyone from unsafe HTML.