Cloudflare Threatens To Cut Google Out Of Its Search Publishers Due To AI Hacking

One of our biggest complaints about AI is that it steals our copyrighted content. On top of that, the intensity of site scraping is so high that even Cloudflare (and we pay exorbitant monthly fees for their industrial-grade product), which has the best bot detection and blocking on the internet, is having a hard time in this arms race. Readers may have noticed that from time to time, we have had to enter captchas to prevent this crime. If we don’t, performance degradation causes downtime for managers and writers. That means we can’t post new posts or free comments are held in moderation.

Cloudflare is obviously as frustrated as we are. From Adweek on Once Unimaginable, Publishers Prepare to Exit Google Search.:

The nuclear option is gaining momentum as web traffic falls and Google refuses to negotiate with content creators.

For decades, publishers have been doing everything they can, from the legal to the blatantly illegal, to rank as high in Google Search as possible…

But now, a number of influential players in the digital media ecosystem have begun to move in the opposite direction, laying the groundwork for what was previously unthinkable: removing themselves from Google Search.

Last week, content delivery network Cloudflare, which hosts nearly one-fifth of the world’s websites, gave Google an ultimatum.

Starting September 15, all new websites that sign up for Cloudflare, as well as all customers in its free tier, will have a default setting in their bot management protocol set to block “multipurpose crawlers” from any web page with ads. This means that any searcher that scrapes both the search index and the AI ​​training will be turned away at the door, unless the site owner decides otherwise.

“We were very clear about what we wanted,” said Cloudflare chief strategy officer Stephanie Cohen. “We want a technical solution that allows you to be found without having to give away your content for free.”

While a number of luminaries fit this description—Apple and Bing, among others—the main, unspoken target of this practice is Google, which abuses the same search engine for both index sites and trains its AI models….

In addition, Google recently introduced an option called Google Extended, which allows publishers to opt out of AI training without disappearing from Search. But publishers are aware that the plan will penalize their search visibility, according to executives at two media companies.

This article goes without saying that Google has been hostile to independent publishers since at least 2014. We have been repeatedly downgraded in search, as have sites like the Intercept and Truthout. We don’t see Google as helpful at all in finding new readers, but it would be a shame if they couldn’t find articles anymore. However, Kagi is much better, especially for site-specific searches, so we continue to recommend it. Remember, if something is free, you are the product, and with Kagi you also get privacy. They do not keep search histories.

Confirming our dim view of Google’s innovation:

Google pays Reddit millions for content access.

The content on your website is also property.

Don’t let every AI detective scratch it for free. Control who can access your content while keeping Google Search active.

Cloudflare AI Crawl Control + Pay Per Crawl is just the beginning. pic.twitter.com/WRxXzEx6KD

— Cuong Thach (@cuongthach_) July 10, 2026

And other powerhouses are successfully joining Cloudflare. The answer is from Adweek:

USA Today Inc., which includes not just USA Today but a nationwide network of news sites, is evaluating its options in the matter, according to CEO Mike Reed.

The company, like many others, responded to the decline in search traffic by strengthening the audience from other sources, such as newsletters, social media, and events. Its traffic has remained steady in recent years, reaching its goal of 1 billion page views every month for the past three years, according to Reed.

However, its ongoing monetization strategy as it relates to AI will come from licensing agreements, which the company has struck with Meta, Microsoft, and Amazon, among others. Google, unlike its hyperscaler peers or pure AI firms like OpenAI and Anthropic, has not settled any licensing agreements with any publishers.

Because of this, USA Today Inc. ready to delist from Google in the next six to twelve months, according to Reed. Similarly, creator network Beehiiv announced in a recent partnership with Cloudflare that the creator network now has the ability to block Google’s search engine.

“I wouldn’t call it a big decision because it stops other creeps,” said Reed. “For those who have license agreements, they get our content. For those who don’t, we block them.”

While USA Today Inc., Beehiiv, and Cloudflare are the first major players to take this step, executives at all major media companies have a model of what it would look like if they banned Google Bot, according to one executive who wished to remain anonymous due to business involvement with Google.

It’s worth noting what these high-paying AI scrapers should be. In ECONNED, your humble blogger deserves $3,000 in a class action settlement with Anthropic. How much do you think all these AI thieves should be paying for the gigantic body of Naked Capitalism?

So again, AI is bad, destroying the original content provider’s business to produce erratic output that is always wrong and off-color. It is also not conducive to critical thinking or retention. But ignorant food with knowledge seems to be popular.