internetarchive4d ago

New post from Joe Mullin, EFF's Sr. Policy Analyst: Publishers say they’re blocking the Internet Archive because they fear AI scraping. This is a misguided notion: it won’t stop AI, but it will erase the web’s historical record.

@eff has the story ⤵️
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/03/blocking-internet-archive-wont-stop-ai-it-will-erase-webs-historical-record

Blocking the Internet Archive Won’t Stop AI, But It Will Erase the Web’s Historical Record

Imagine a newspaper publisher announcing it will no longer allow libraries to keep copies of its paper. That’s effectively what’s begun happening online in the last few months. The Internet Archive—the world’s largest digital library—has preserved newspapers since it went online in the mid-1990s....

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Show threadDenis Warburton4d ago

@internetarchive That’s complete and absolute BULLSHIT.*

IA is a major content feeder to website scrapers.

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* Apologies for the profanity, but strong language is called for in this situation.

Show threadinfernalsk majeskæg4d ago

@artandtechnic So what do you call BS on? That blocking @internetarchive crawlers won't stop "AI"? Or that it *will* prevent preservation of websites?

I wouldn't be surprised that "AI" companies scrape freely available data on archive.org, but they also hammer the rest of the open web like a constant DDoS attack. Blocking the IA is only going to hurt illicit "AI" scrapers marginally, but more so current open culture and future historians.

Show threadDenis Warburton4d ago
@fanden @internetarchive Your question is answered by the second sentence in the post you are replying to. Thanks for asking!
Show threadinfernalsk majeskæg
@[email protected] It really isn't, no. But I suspected you didn't have more than empty claims. Bye bye. @internetarchive
Mar 17 at 10:12pmWeb