←back to thread

The web does not need gatekeepers: Cloudflare’s new “signed agents” pitch

(positiveblue.substack.com)
454 points positiveblue | 2 comments | 29 Aug 25 16:35 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
TIPSIO ◴[29 Aug 25 16:57 UTC] No.45066555[source]▶
Everyone loves the dream of a free for all and open web.

But the reality is how can someone small protect their blog or content from AI training bots? E.g.: They just blindly trust someone is sending Agent vs Training bots and super duper respecting robots.txt? Get real...

Or, fine what if they do respect robots.txt, but they buy the data that may or may not have been shielded through liability layers via "licensed data"?

Unless you're reddit, X, Google, or Meta with scary unlimited budget legal teams, you have no power.

Great video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/M0QyOp7zqcY

replies(37): >>45066600 #>>45066626 #>>45066827 #>>45066906 #>>45066945 #>>45066976 #>>45066979 #>>45067024 #>>45067058 #>>45067180 #>>45067399 #>>45067434 #>>45067570 #>>45067621 #>>45067750 #>>45067890 #>>45067955 #>>45068022 #>>45068044 #>>45068075 #>>45068077 #>>45068166 #>>45068329 #>>45068436 #>>45068551 #>>45068588 #>>45069623 #>>45070279 #>>45070690 #>>45071600 #>>45071816 #>>45075075 #>>45075398 #>>45077464 #>>45077583 #>>45080415 #>>45101938 #
1. eldenring ◴[29 Aug 25 17:18 UTC] No.45066827[source]▶
I recently found out my website has been blocked by AI agents, when I had never asked for it. It seems to be opt-out by default, but in an obscure way. Very frustrating. I think some of these companies (one in particular) are risking burning a lot of goodwill, although I think they have been on that path for a while now.
replies(1): >>45072025 #
2. DanOpcode ◴[30 Aug 25 05:02 UTC] No.45072025[source]▶
Are you talking about Cloudflare? The default seems indeed to be to block AI crawlers when you set up a new site with them.