Blocking Internet Archive Won't Stop AI, but Will Erase Web's Historical Record
Recorded: March 21, 2026, 10 p.m.
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Blocking the Internet Archive Won’t Stop AI, But It Will Erase the Web’s Historical Record DEEPLINKS BLOG By Joe MullinMarch 16, 2026
Blocking the Internet Archive Won’t Stop AI, But It Will Erase the Web’s Historical Record Share It
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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) highlights a concerning trend: major news publishers, such as The New York Times and The Guardian, are blocking the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine from archiving their websites. This action, driven by concerns about AI companies scraping news content, poses a significant risk of erasing a critical historical record. According to Joe Mullin, this is not an effective strategy to combat the potential misuse of AI, as it fundamentally threatens the preservation of web history. The EFF argues that blocking the Archive’s crawlers, which operate within established legal frameworks, is a misguided response to a complex issue. The core of the argument rests on the legal precedent established around search engines and archiving. Courts have repeatedly recognized that making material searchable, including creating indexes, constitutes fair use, particularly when it facilitates discovery and research. The Internet Archive’s operation mirrors this principle – it’s preserving the web’s historical record, akin to how physical libraries archive newspapers. The EFF emphasizes that the Archive isn’t building commercial AI systems; it’s dedicated to safeguarding public knowledge. They point to the Archive’s reliance by organizations like Wikipedia, containing over 2.6 million news articles across 249 languages, as evidence of its crucial role. Furthermore, the EFF contends that by attempting to control access to archived content, publishers are not simply limiting bots. They are actively erasing a foundational record of online journalism and public discourse. The legal battles currently underway regarding AI training on copyrighted material are separate from the fundamental right of archives to preserve and provide access to historical information. The EFF stresses that sacrificing this public record in the pursuit of controlling AI access would represent a profound and potentially irreversible mistake. The conflict between the publishers and the Internet Archive underscores a broader struggle over control of information and its accessibility, particularly in an era of rapidly evolving technologies like artificial intelligence. |