I have often used the phrase "democracy dies behind a paywall". It is of course a riff on the Washington Post's slogan that democracy dies in darkness, and both allude to the idea that democracy depends on timely access to accurate facts and information. This article gets at the other side of that slogan, that when access to trusth is blocked, falsehoods and misinformation flourish, with the consequent undermining of democracy. This article focuses on how genuine news sites and misinformation sites restrict (or not) access by AI agents and scrapers. Unsurprisingly, the misinformation sites are happy to welcome AI while "AI-blocking by reputable sites (increased) from 23% in September 2023 to nearly 60% by May 2025... raising essential questions for web transparency, data ethics, and the future of AI training practices."
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