You Can Now Block Political Ads on Reddit

Preserve what little of your sanity you have left.

Election season occupies enough mental real estate as it is, so Reddit is letting its users preserve a modicum of sanity by permitting them to opt out of political ads.

The news came in a wider post to r/redditsecurity yesterday, where an admin said the company has updated its “Sensitive Advertising Categories” list to include ads related to politics and activism. This means you can opt out of these topical ads using the site’s existing ads filtering tools, per an update to the Reddit Changelog also released yesterday.

Politics and activism join alcohol, dating, gambling, weight loss, and pregnancy and parenting in the list of ads you can filter out, as well as another newly added category—religion and spirituality. 

To opt out of political ads (or any other ads from the above categories) on desktop, go to reddit.com and click on your profile page in the top-right of the page, then click the cog next to “Settings.” Choose the “Preferences” tab and scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the “Limit ads in selected categories” button. Click it to expand a list of toggles, then choose which ads to limit and click “Done.”

On Reddit for iOS or Android, tap your profile picture in the top-right corner, then tap the cog icon next to “Settings.” Under “Account Settings,” click your username, wait for the next page to load, and scroll down to “Sensitive Advertising Categories.” Toggle which categories you want to see ads from, and your account settings will update automatically.

The ability to filter out political ads on Reddit comes after another post stating that politicians must now hold an AMA with the Reddit community before being able to post political ads on Reddit. AI-generated content in political ads must also now be clearly marked.