Reuters has recently started blocking all artificial intelligence bots by default, reports Sara Guaglione from Digiday.
Guaglione reports, “Reuters is blocking bots by default using robots.txt files. That method is far from foolproof. It tells web crawlers which URLs they can, but it relies on voluntary compliance — and many AI bots ignore it. A Tollbit report found that 30% of total AI bot scrapes in Q4 2025 did not abide by explicit robots.txt permissions.
“But the point is to create friction, which is especially critical given the recent explosion of bot traffic publishers have seen, according to Alphonse Hardel, head of agency at Reuters, who leads the content licensing and solutions business.
“‘[Robots.txt] is non-binding, and so it’s something that is just a part of the funnel but it strengthens a message to say, ‘if you want this, let’s have a conversation and then we can allow you to access’,’ Hardel said. ‘We don’t have resources to monitor everything around the wall. There are very many bots that exist today.'”
Read more here.
