What Is the Bad Bots Bill, and Why Are Florida Publishers Asking Congress to Pass It?

Publishers across Florida are dealing with a problem most readers never see. Automated bots are scraping their websites in huge volumes, often while posing as ordinary American visitors. In late September, a group of Florida media owners, editors, and operators took that problem to Washington.

KeyCrew, a Florida-based real estate intelligence and media company, joined the Florida delegation at the Support Journalism Fly-In hosted by the News/Media Alliance and America’s Newspapers. The visits focused on the Stealth Bot Prohibition Act (H.R. 9915), commonly called the bad bots bill.

What the Bill Is Meant to Do

The bill would require bots to disclose who they are and why they are accessing a website. It would also ban disguising a bot as a human user to feed generative AI.

The proposal is often misread as an attempt by media companies to shut out artificial intelligence. According to Steve Marcinuk, Co-Founder and CEO of KeyCrew, that is not the goal.

“This isn’t a move by media to block all involvement with artificial intelligence,” Marcinuk said. “It’s a common sense proposal that gives publishers, at the very least, visibility into what bots are scraping their sites, and gives publishers options based on that transparency to make informed decisions with how their content is used.”

Many publishers want to license or distribute their content to AI platforms. What they lack is a clear view of who is already taking it. Without that visibility, it is hard to negotiate a fair deal with anyone.

What Scraping Looks Like for a Small Publisher

The scale is significant. The News/Media Alliance estimates that deceptive bots account for more than half of the traffic on some publisher sites. TollBit, which tracks AI bot activity, found that by the end of 2025 the average site it monitors saw one AI bot visit for every 31 human visits, up from one in 200 at the start of the year.

For smaller outlets, heavy scraping can do more than skew analytics. Many do not have budgets for hosting overages, so a large scraping event can take a site offline for days. “That’s not fair to the publications. It’s not fair to their readers,” Marcinuk said.

There is also a reporting problem. Much of this bot traffic is designed to look like U.S. consumers, which is easy to do with a VPN and widely available tools. “These are entities from around the world,” Marcinuk said. “Many of them could be foreign companies, foreign governments, and using out-of-the-box technology, they’re able to pretend to be U.S. consumers.” For publications that report traffic to advertisers or use it for internal planning, that creates real accuracy issues.

What KeyCrew Brought to the Conversation

Many of the attendees were editorial leaders who have run their publications for decades. KeyCrew is a newer publisher, but it has spent more time working directly with AI distribution, AI licensing, and tracking how its content performs on AI platforms.

“Our knowledge of the technology and how it’s being used helped inform our conversations with congressional and Senate offices and their staffs, who were trying to wrap their heads around what was actually happening,” Marcinuk said.

That background helps explain how large-scale scraping works when a foreign entity targets a publication’s content, and why current blocking methods often fail.

A Bipartisan Bill With Florida Roots

The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act was introduced in July by Florida Reps. Laurel Lee (R) and Gus Bilirakis (R) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC). Reps. Lee and Foushee were honored by the News/Media Alliance during fly-in week for their support of journalism. New York’s legislature passed a similar state law, the Stealth Crawler Prohibition Act, in June.

For publishers, the takeaway is practical. Know what is visiting your site, plan for the cost of heavy bot traffic, and be clear about your own AI strategy before you start licensing conversations. KeyCrew sees broad distribution, including through AI, as a core part of its future. Every publisher should get to make that choice with full information, and that is what the bill aims to provide.

KeyCrew is a Florida-based real estate intelligence and media company that owns and operates digital publications covering the real estate industry. Its expert-sourced reporting is syndicated across more than 1,000 publications, news sites, and media outlets.

This article is based on information provided by the expert source cited above. It is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or real estate advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any real estate or financial decisions.