U.S. Lawmakers Introduce Bot Disclosure Bill as Publishers Face Millions of Daily Scrapes
Updated
Updated · Wyoming Tribune · Aug 22
U.S. Lawmakers Introduce Bot Disclosure Bill as Publishers Face Millions of Daily Scrapes
2 articles · Updated · Wyoming Tribune · Aug 22
Summary
Bipartisan House lawmakers introduced the Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would require automated web crawlers to disclose their identity and purpose so sites can block malicious traffic.
Millions of bot requests can hit a single site in one day, publishers say, slowing pages, driving up bandwidth and server costs, and in some cases causing outages.
News outlets argue many disguised bots scrape articles for a multibillion-dollar resale market, where AI developers buy content from bot operators rather than original publishers.
The bill would not ban bots outright; it would create a transparency standard backed by FTC and other enforcement, aiming to help publishers police traffic themselves.
Supporters say the measure has urgency well beyond newsrooms, with libraries, archives, health and financial sites also reporting surging bot traffic as bots now outnumber humans online.