Cloudflare’s Internet Gatekeeping: Is the Open Web at Risk?

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Cloudflare, one of the major infrastructure providers on the internet, has recently introduced a system of "signed agents" and an allow list for bots and web crawlers. This development has caught the attention of technology experts and sparked real concern about the future of the open web. On This Week in Tech (TWiT), host Leo Laporte and guests analyzed the impact Cloudflare’s new gatekeeping approach could have, debating both its intent and wider implications.

What Happened: Cloudflare’s Move Toward Gatekeeping

Cloudflare recently announced a system that resembles a border checkpoint for internet bots and web crawlers—requiring them to apply for permission to access websites behind Cloudflare’s infrastructure. To gain access, site operators or bot developers have to get on Cloudflare's allow list as “signed agents.” This move has the potential to put Cloudflare in a powerful position, essentially controlling who can participate in key parts of the open web.

Why It Matters: Control and the Open Web

The TWiT panel highlighted how Cloudflare’s step could mark a turning point for internet infrastructure. By becoming a central arbiter of who gets access, Cloudflare risks shifting the web away from its original open model. Multiple experts noted that while infrastructure companies have long provided services to keep sites secure from attacks (like anti-DDoS protection), evolving into a de facto gatekeeper was a significant leap. If Cloudflare becomes the universal certificate authority for web agents, it could destabilize the trust and neutrality that the open internet relies on.

Criticism: Overreach and Centralization

Guests including Lou Maresca and Shoshana Weissman voiced strong concern. They argued Cloudflare’s approach represents overreach: a single, powerful company dictating who can or cannot access vast swaths of the internet. They warned this sort of centralization not only undermines the principle of a decentralized web, but could also raise major censorship and gatekeeping issues if Cloudflare decides to restrict certain legitimate actors.

Weissman suggested the move looked like Cloudflare was searching for more power, attempting to assert itself in a way that users and operators historically have not asked for or welcomed.

Additional Insights: Infrastructure Must Remain Neutral

Cory Doctorow provided perspective by comparing Cloudflare’s new role to historical internet infrastructure debates. He emphasized that infrastructure, like domain registries or backbone operators, must remain neutral for the internet to function as an open space. Once a company is seen as a gatekeeper, they become a target for outside policy agendas and lose trust as a neutral provider. Doctorow warned that whenever infrastructure is used for enforcement, all sorts of actors—good and bad—will try to influence it. This diminishes openness and could lead to weakening of the internet’s foundational principles.

What This Means

• Threat to Open Web Values: Centralizing web access decisions introduces powerful gatekeeper risks.
• Danger of Censorship: If one company controls access, both intentional and accidental censorship can rise.
• Lack of Consensus: The TWiT panel agreed that problems around AI crawlers and web scraping do exist, but questioned whether Cloudflare’s method is justified or effective.
• Historical Lessons: Prior uses of infrastructure for enforcement (DNS, payment processors) have led to fragmentation and less trust.
• Potential Fragmentation: Overreach could push developers and companies to build alternatives, leading to further internet fragmentation.

The Bottom Line

The This Week in Tech panel sees Cloudflare’s signed agent system as a move that could fundamentally alter the nature of the open web. While controlling abusive bots is a valid concern, concentrating permission-granting power in one provider’s hands risks creating the very kinds of bottlenecks, censorship, and trust problems the internet was designed to avoid. The consensus: infrastructure should facilitate, not police, online participation.

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