GoKawiilMedia groups' push for Stealth Bot Prohibition Act draws pushback over scraping rules
More than 300 media industry representatives lobbied Congress in late September for the Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, aimed at curbing automated AI data-harvesting that drains referral traffic and ad revenue from news sites. Critics Lila Bailey and Tess Vartanian argue the bill would instead require anyone running an automated web crawler to disclose their identity and purpose, a mandate they say would hinder legitimate activities like investigative journalism, archiving and research.