AI crawlers access Indonesian news sites without compensation, threatening media revenue
Research by Indonesian media industry groups found that AI crawler bots account for 30-50% of traffic to news websites, extracting journalistic content without compensation while media companies bear server costs, reducing advertising revenue and threatening the economic viability of news organizations.
What happened
Research by AMSI and Monash University found that 30 to 50 percent of traffic to Indonesian news media websites comes from AI crawler bots accessing the sites to gather information for AI platforms.
Media companies do not receive compensation from AI systems that access their content, but must bear the costs of server infrastructure to support the crawler traffic.
Reported impact
AI crawler traffic and the free availability of journalistic content through AI systems has reduced visits to news websites, lowering advertising revenue for media companies.
Media companies reported declining advertising income and loss of economic value for journalistic work that AI systems extract at no cost.
Index analysis
The issue reflects a gap between the infrastructure costs borne by news organizations and the value extracted by AI systems operating without licensing or compensation mechanisms.
Governance controls
Dewan Pers suggested that journalistic work should be protected under law to address the lack of compensation and economic value recognition.
Classification
Sources and evidence
Sources not yet published
This record was researched and written by the Index from original reporting. Its sources are still being verified by an editor, and they are listed here once that check is complete. Until then the record carries no reviewer.