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@bb.usefairuse.com

Over 300 news execs are flying to DC today to tell Congress to kneecap anonymous tools that reporters need to hold powerful people (like big news publishers) accountable. They're pushing the Stealth Bot Prohibition Act to get an AI windfall, even if it makes crucial journalism about the web illegal.

Brandon Butler

@bb.usefairuse.com

According to this story, it sounds like the bill is the result of these bigwigs talking to Congress at their last fly-in, and legislators asking them to come up with legislation they could rally around to show they were 'doing something' about 'bad bots.' digiday.com/media/conde...

digiday.comCondé Nast, Hearst among 300 media execs to push federal ‘bad bots’ bill on AI scrapingMore than 300 publishing execs are heading to D.C. to push Congress to crack down on AI bots that scrape their content without permission.

29/9/26, 2:33 pm0 reposts1 like

Brandon Butler

@bb.usefairuse.com

If this messaging effort actually became law, it would have serious real-world consequences. Journalists need anonymous bots to do important accountability research online. recreatecoalition.org/a-note-from...

recreatecoalition.orgA note from Re:Create: How So-Called “Stealth Bot” Prohibitions Put Journalists in Danger - Re:CreateIf I could convince every policymaker of one essential principle, it would be that what’s good for the biggest content industry businesses is not always good for creative workers or the public. In fact, in many cases these business interests are in direct conflict with creative workers. The latest example comes from “stealth bot prohibition” […]

Brandon Butler

@bb.usefairuse.com

I'm not the only one saying this. Web scraping has been a key method in some of the most important accountability journalism of this century. Check out this interview with @JuliaAngwin.com and @nabi.bsky.social about their amicus brief in defense of scraping: themarkup.org/newsletter/...

themarkup.orgWeb Scraping Is Not a Crime – The MarkupHello, friends, This week the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that is very close to our hearts …

Brandon Butler

@bb.usefairuse.com

Also checkout @senatorshoshana.bsky.social's excellent piece on the larger issue of bot identification; SBPA will upset more nuanced private sector approaches already in progress: abundance.institute/our-work/ai...

abundance.instituteAI agents should be free to browse the internet without revealing your identitySome companies and services may well choose to add layers of identification requirements to avoid legal risk or otherwise protect their services. Companies should remain free to require identity verification on their own websites—or reject AI agents altogether. Those choices belong to private actors, not the government.