Originality AI: 23 major news sites and Reddit block the Wayback Machine crawler; journalists rally in support

What happened

It has been reported that Originality AI’s analysis found 23 major news websites blocking ia_archiverbot, the Internet Archive’s crawler used by the Wayback Machine. Reddit is allegedly among the platforms cutting access, and other outlets — like The Guardian — are taking subtler routes, filtering archived content from the Wayback interface or excluding it from the Archive’s API. The result: large swaths of recent reporting risk disappearing from the most widely used web preservation tool. Who gets to be the keeper of the internet’s memory? Apparently, that’s up for negotiation.

Why publishers are blocking

Publishers say they’re protecting their content from scraping and potential misuse by AI firms. USA Today Co. frames the move as a broader anti-scraping policy, not a targeted attack on the Archive; The Guardian has cited concerns about “potential misuse by AI companies” after preservation crawls. Fair point. But there’s a sting in the tail: reporters, researchers and everyday readers have relied on the Wayback Machine to check facts, recover removed stories and hold powerful institutions accountable. It’s one thing to guard a paywall. It’s another to sever a historical record.

Journalists and advocates push back

Now journalists and digital-rights advocates are pushing back. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future and a coalition of newsroom signatories — from Rachel Maddow to independent beat reporters — presented a letter backing the Archive and warning about the loss of a public archive for journalism. For many reporters, the Wayback Machine is not a nice-to-have; it’s an essential tool for fact-checking, union organizing and cultural criticism. The emotional core of this debate is simple: when you strip away archives, you erase evidence. That’s why this fight feels bigger than a bot-blocking policy. It’s about who gets to remember.

Sources: wired.com