New York broadcasters may soon have a legal tool to fight back against AI that secretly scrapes their news content. The New York State Legislature passed legislation that would prohibit automated bots from disguising their identities when accessing station websites.
The bill, which creates a private right of action for broadcast and news organizations to enforce that requirement, now awaits the governor’s signature.
The target is what the industry calls “stealth crawlers,” or bots deployed by AI systems that mask their identities to access digital content without permission or disclosure. Local broadcasters and newspapers have reported being overwhelmed by millions of bot hits per day, driving up server costs and enabling tech companies to extract journalism for AI training without consent or payment.
New York State Broadcasters Association President David Donovan said, “By protecting broadcast news operations from unauthorized access by Big Tech, the legislation ensures the economic foundations of producing original, local news by broadcast stations throughout the Empire State.”
New York News Publishers Association President Diane Kennedy commented, “News publishers invest substantial resources of labor, skill, and capital in producing original journalism.”
“The proliferation of stealth crawlers,” she added, “Enables technology companies and other actors to access the fruits of that investment without consent or transparency. This legislation prohibits crawlers from disguising their identity when accessing covered news sources and creates a meaningful private right of action for journalism providers to enforce that obligation.”
News/Media Alliance President and CEO Danielle Coffey said, “The New York Assembly and Senate just took a strong stand for transparency and the health of our information ecosystem. Right now, news websites are drowning in bot traffic. Bad bots are disguising their identities to overload publisher servers and access the quality content on our sites, hurting our ability to serve readers. By requiring transparency and accountability for bad actors, the New York Stealth Crawler Prohibition Act gives publishers the tools they need to defend themselves and continue providing quality and critical information.”
The bill was sponsored by Assemblyperson Steven Otis, chair of the Internet, Science and Technology Committee, and Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris.
