Patreon stops asking AI bots not to scrape, and starts blocking them
Patreon is strengthening its defenses against AI scraping by working with Cloudflare to block bots that train AI models on creators’ content without permission. The move marks a shift away from relying on websites using robots.txt alone to actively block unauthorized AI training.
Get smart on it
Patreon, a membership platform for creators, is now actively blocking AI bots from scraping its creators' content for AI training purposes, working with internet infrastructure provider Cloudflare to implement this enforcement. Previously, Patreon had only asked AI crawlers not to scrape content through robots.txt files, which the crawlers ignored by continuing to attempt access thousands of times weekly. The company made this shift because AI scraping has become more sophisticated since 2023, and because new discovery features on Patreon could expose more creator content to crawlers. This change reflects a broader trend of online publishers and content creators seeking to control how AI companies use their work without permission.
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