Patreon has partnered with Cloudflare to stop AI training crawlers from scraping content on the site. This network-level block applies to every post published on the platform.
The announcement
Jack Conte, the founder and chief executive of Patreon, shared the news on Instagram on Thursday. His caption read: “POV: you’re CEO of one of these fucking tech companies, so you do what you want.” Conte stated he had a major product update for the community.
“Patreon has partnered with an internet infrastructure company called Cloudflare to block AI training crawlers from using the work you publish on your Patreon to train their AI models,” Conte wrote. “This is live and happening at the network level on all posts published on Patreon.”
Cloudflare, a provider of cybersecurity and content delivery services, began blocking AI crawlers from accessing content without permission or compensation by default last year. Earlier this month, the company introduced new options for site owners to manage AI traffic. These settings allow owners to distinguish between search bots, agent bots, and training crawlers. In September, Cloudflare noted that all new domains onboarding to its service would have training and agent bots blocked by default on pages displaying ads, while search crawlers would remain allowed.
A stance on consent
Conte wrote in his post: “Creators deserve credit, compensation, and consent. If that’s not on the table, the crawlers can stay the fuck off Patreon. The free internet is alive and happening. The rebellion has already started.”
In May, Conte posted a 43-minute video addressing the failure of the AI industry to pay creators. He outlined three requirements for the sector: consent, credit, and compensation. Consent means allowing creators to opt out of their work being used as training data. Credit means acknowledging the artist when their style is replicated. Compensation means paying creators when their work is used. Conte noted that the current answer to all three questions is a big fat “No.”
Patreon allows AI-generated works on the platform provided they comply with terms of use. In 2024, 404 Media reported that many creators of nonconsensual sexual images and videos monetised their content there. Last year, Patreon updated its guidelines for AI content. The policy states: “AI-generated depictions of people that are illustrated/animated are permitted; AI-generated hyperrealistic depictions of people are permitted only if the people are real and have documented their explicit consent.”
Patreon and Cloudflare did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What it means
For people making content on Patreon, the change ensures their work cannot be harvested to train large language models or image generators without permission. This stops the practice of using paid subscriber material to build commercial AI products. Creators retain control over how their specific posts are accessed by automated systems.
