Technology

News outlets are blocking Wayback Machine from archiving their pages — 23 outlets concerned AI companies might abuse fair use and use it to train their models

Source

Tom's Hardware

Published

Apr 14, 2026

TL;DR

AI Generated

Many news outlets are blocking the Wayback Machine from archiving their pages due to concerns that AI companies may misuse fair use policies by using archived content to train their models. This move could limit access to historical news stories and crucial information in an era where misinformation is rampant and AI models can generate convincing but false answers. Notably, 23 major publications, including USA Today and The New York Times, are currently blocking the Internet Archive's crawler. While some argue that publications should handle their own archiving, a neutral third party like the Wayback Machine is crucial for maintaining accurate historical records and tracking changes in online content. Despite concerns about fair use, preventing archiving services like the Wayback Machine could have more negative consequences than benefits for society.

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