Patreon has announced it is strengthening its defenses against AI scraping by working with Cloudflare to block bots that train AI models on creators' content without permission. The platform is shifting away from relying solely on robots.txt files, which ask bots not to scrape, and instead actively blocking unauthorized AI training. This move comes as AI companies increasingly scrape the web for training data, often ignoring opt-out requests. Patreon joins a growing list of platforms taking more aggressive stances against AI data harvesting.
This is the right move. For too long, creators had to hope AI companies would respect a polite request in a text file. Robots.txt was never a lock — it was a sign. And signs get ignored.
Patreon’s shift to active blocking with Cloudflare is a natural evolution. It’s not about stopping AI progress. It’s about consent. Creators should control how their work is used. This gives them that power back. We can have both innovation and respect for creators.