Reddit’s recent post about fighting spam was a bit suspect after its AI translations finally starting dropping in Google and downstream in AI Search platforms like ChatGPT. This is my fourth post in the series about Reddit’s AI translations. It’s been quite the journey so far…
Well, it looks like it finally happened. After years of scaling AI translations, Reddit finally starting dropping in Google Search (and then downstream in AI Search). To refresh your memory about the history of the situation, I’ve written a three-part series about Reddit scaling AI translations across countries and how Google was rewarding that heavily. I also explained that Google replied to me after my first post explaining that AI translations are fine *if* the content being translated is high quality. That’s the nuance that’s dangerous for site owners…
And until recently, it seemed that Google was ok with Reddit scaling threads into many different languages via AI. But that just changed, and it took a broad core update AND a spam update to start impacting those AI translations in the SERPs.
Two things tipped me off that something was going on… First, Peec AI’s Metehan Yeşilyurt wrote a post about how Reddit’s AI translations were performing across AI Search. That led me to dig back into my data and realize that those AI translations were dropping heavily across countries in Google (10-blue links, AIOs, and AI Mode). In addition, those AI translations also dropped in ChatGPT, but earlier.
Second, Reddit just published a blog post covering how they are combating spam (including rolling out new measures this week). The timing was very interesting considering the recent drop and I took a closer look at how the recent Google June 2026 spam update impacted Reddit’s AI translations. In this post, I’ll cover what I’m seeing across Google’s 10-blue links, AI Overviews, AI Mode, and then ChatGPT.
The Timing Was Suspect – Reddit’s timely post about fighting spam…
Earlier I mentioned that Reddit just published a blog post detailing its latest spam-fighting efforts. Again, this was suspect to me. And after seeing the big drops for Reddit AI translations based on the May 2026 broad core update and the June 2026 spam update, I really think this is Reddit pushing hard to show everyone (including Google) that they are working hard to combat spam.
For those not familiar with spam updates, Google can always roll out official spam updates to address tactics that are getting past its core ranking systems. So for sites spamming to gain rankings, they can come crashing down hard when those spam updates roll out. Site owners impacted should review all of Google’s spam policies and determine where they are violating those policies. Then they should address that aggressively… After fixing spam-related problems, Google will need to see those changes in place for months (at least) before the site can recover.
Reddit definitely has spam issues beyond AI translations, but Google’s “Scaled content abuse” policy is one I would take a hard look at if I were Reddit. Note the line about autogenerating content at scale:
Scaling AI translations in the past has been super risky (unless you’re Reddit):
In my previous posts about Reddit’s AI translations, I explained that a number of sites have reached out to me (including larger brands) after auto-translating content and then receiving either a manual action for scaled content abuse or getting hit hard by a Google spam update. So, Reddit scaling heavily via AI translations and being rewarded was super interesting to see, hence the three-part series I published. Reddit was scaling by tens of millions of urls (or more) with AI-translated content across countries. It was a massive effort and was super risky in my opinion.
Below, I have included screenshots from Semrush, ahrefs, and Sistrix from several countries so you can see the drops.
Italy:
And the drop in AI Overviews:
Spain:
And the drop in AI Overviews:
Germany:
And the drop in AI Overviews:
France:
Note, AI Overviews don’t appear in France so I can’t display a graph for that like the other countries I covered earlier.
Dropping in organic search leads to a drop in AI search (AIOs, AI Mode, ChatGPT):
And as I have covered many times before, when you drop in organic search (Google and/or Bing), you can drop downstream in AI Search. That’s because AI Search platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Claude ground their answers via organic search. In addition, Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode are both rooted in Google’s core quality and ranking systems. So when you drop in Google Search, you will drop in AIOs and AI Mode.
I have provided AI Search visibility screenshots below across countries for Reddit’s AI translations. Notice the big drops…
Italy (AI mode, AIOs, and ChatGPT citations):
Germany (AI mode, AIOs, and ChatGPT citations):
Spain (AI mode, AIOs, and ChatGPT citations):
For Site Owners Wanting To Scale AI Translations, My Advice Remains…
As I explained throughout my series on this topic, it’s super risky for most companies to scale via AI translations unless you are 100% sure your content is high quality and insightful. DO NOT assume this since you could be too close to your site and content. Many site owners are… And if you scale low-quality content heavily via AI translations, look out. You could be looking at a manual action for scaled content abuse or a spam update hit. Hey, even Reddit got hit. BEWARE.
I’ll keep tracking the situation and post updates if anything changes on the AI translation front for Reddit. It’s been quite the journey for them so far. Stay tuned.
GG