{"id":75096,"date":"2025-07-01T15:57:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T14:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=75096"},"modified":"2025-07-01T15:57:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T14:57:51","slug":"cloudflare-unveils-permission-based-ai-crawler-controls-to-protect-content-and-reshape-internet-business-models","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2025\/07\/01\/cloudflare-unveils-permission-based-ai-crawler-controls-to-protect-content-and-reshape-internet-business-models\/","title":{"rendered":"Cloudflare unveils permission-based AI crawler controls to protect content and reshape Internet business models"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Empowers leading publishers and AI companies to stop the scraping and use of original content without permission.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloudflare, the leading connectivity cloud company, has announced it is now the first Internet infrastructure provider to block AI crawlers accessing content without permission or compensation, by default. Starting today, website owners can choose if they want AI crawlers to access their content and decide how AI companies can use it. AI companies can also now clearly state their purpose \u2013 whether their crawlers are used for training, inference or search \u2013 to help website owners decide which crawlers to allow. Cloudflare\u2019s new default setting is the first step towards a more sustainable future for both content creators and AI innovators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, the Internet has operated on a simple exchange: search engines index content and direct users back to original websites, generating traffic and ad revenue for websites of all sizes. This cycle rewards creators that produce quality content with money and a following, while helping users discover new and relevant information. That model is now broken. AI crawlers collect content like text, articles and images to generate answers, without sending visitors to the original source \u2013 depriving content creators of revenue, and the satisfaction of knowing someone is viewing their content. If the incentive to create original, quality content disappears, society ends up losing and the future of the Internet is at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cIf the Internet is going to survive the age of AI, we need to give publishers the control they deserve and build a new economic model that works for everyone \u2013 creators, consumers, tomorrow\u2019s AI founders and the future of the web itself,\u201d said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare. \u201cOriginal content is what makes the Internet one of the greatest inventions in the last century, and it\u2019s essential that creators continue making it. AI crawlers have been scraping content without limits. Our goal is to put the power back in the hands of creators while still helping AI companies innovate. This is about safeguarding the future of a free and vibrant Internet with a new model that works for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCloudflare\u2019s innovative approach to block AI crawlers is a game-changer for publishers and sets a new standard for how content is respected online. When AI companies can no longer take anything they want for free, it opens the door to sustainable innovation built on permission and partnership,\u201d said Roger Lynch, CEO of Cond\u00e9 Nast. \u201cThis is a critical step towards creating a fair value exchange on the Internet that protects creators, supports quality journalism and holds AI companies accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have long said that AI platforms must fairly compensate publishers and creators to use our content. We can now limit access to our content to those AI partners willing to engage in fair arrangements,\u201d said Neil Vogel, CEO of Dotdash Meredith. \u201cWe\u2019re proud to support Cloudflare and look forward to using their tools to protect our content and the open web.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs the largest publisher in the country, comprised of USA TODAY and over 200 local publications throughout the USA TODAY Network, blocking unauthorised scraping and the use of our original content without fair compensation is critically important,\u201d said Renn Turiano, Chief Consumer and Product Officer of Gannett Media. \u201cAs our industry faces these challenges, we are optimistic the Cloudflare technology will help combat the theft of valuable IP.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCreators and publishers around the world leverage Pinterest to expand their businesses, reach new audiences and directly measure their success. As AI continues to reshape the digital landscape, we are committed to building a healthy Internet infrastructure where content is used for its intended purpose, so creators and publishers can thrive,\u201d said Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAI companies, search engines, researchers and anyone else crawling sites have to be who they say they are. And any platform on the web should have a say in who is taking their content for what,\u201d said Steve Huffman, co-founder and CEO of Reddit. \u201cThe whole ecosystem of creators, platforms, web users and crawlers will be better when crawling is more transparent and controlled, and Cloudflare\u2019s efforts are a step in the right direction for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe applaud Cloudflare for advocating for a sustainable digital ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders \u2013 the consumers who rely on credible information, the publishers who invest in its creation and the advertisers who support its dissemination,\u201d said Vivek Shah, CEO of Ziff Davis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Empowers leading publishers and AI companies to stop the scraping and use of original content without permission. Cloudflare, the leading connectivity cloud company, has announced it is now the first Internet infrastructure provider to block AI crawlers accessing content without permission or compensation, by default. Starting today, website owners can choose if they want AI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":75098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17681,17922,18320,17824,54,13584],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-connectivity","category-innovation","category-networks","category-research","category-tech"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75099,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75096\/revisions\/75099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}