More than 300 publishing executives are gathering in Washington this week to push Congress for legislation that would require artificial intelligence robots to identify themselves when accessing websites.
The proposed law, called the Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, would require bots to disclose their identity and purpose when visiting a website, rather than concealing their access as human traffic. It would also extend the ability of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general to enforce the law through investigations and litigation against tech developers who violate the law.
The News/Media Alliance, which represents more than 2,000 media brands, organized the Capitol Hill meetings as part of its annual Washington fly-in. Executives from Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines and USA Today participated in those meetings, according to numerous reports.
“The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act is a meaningful step toward greater transparency regarding how publisher content is accessed and used,” USA Today CEO Mike Reed, who was one of the participants, said in a statement.
Publishers say the proliferation of AI crawlers is creating additional infrastructure costs while allowing companies to collect content without authorization.
TollBit, which monitors automated traffic for publishers and other websites, detected more than 22 billion AI bot scrapes across more than 987 billion website visits during the first half of 2026. The company has also documented times when automated web crawlers ignored specific instructions from web publishers to not visit their websites or otherwise repurpose their content.
The News/Media Alliance argues mandatory bot identification laws give publishers a better opportunity to block unwanted crawlers and negotiate licensing agreements with companies seeking access to their content.
New York lawmakers passed similar legislation in June that requires automated crawlers accessing news websites to disclose their identity and purpose.
