A a alysis of obots.txt files f om 388 Ca adia websites fi ds F e ch-la guage ews ooms block AI the most, seve al majo b oadcast ews ooms block outdated AI c awle ames, a d 16 sites block a Ca adia AI develope .
Otte bu Pa k, QUEBEC, Oct. 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Seve i te Ca adia ews websites ow ask AI c awle s to stay out, while ot o e of the cou t y’s ba ks, i su e s o fi techs does, acco di g to a ew study f om Chateau Mojo, a Quebec-based SEO a d AI sea ch co sulta cy. The study exami ed the obots.txt files of 388 of Ca ada’s best-k ow websites o Octobe 17, 2026, cove i g ews, ba ki g, gove me t, etail, telecom, educatio a d five othe secto s.
Chateau Mojo’s Octobe 2026 study of AI c awle ules ac oss 388 Ca adia websites.
Robots.txt is the public file a website uses to tell automated c awle s what they may ead. Of the 372 files that could be ead, 21% block at least o e AI c awle f om the e ti e site. That ave age hides a sha p divide: 65 of 93 ews sites (70%) block AI c awle s, compa ed with 5% of sites i eve y othe secto combi ed.
Key fi di gs i clude:
F e ch-la guage ews ooms block the most. 86% of F e ch-la guage ews sites block at least o e AI c awle , a d 82% block the most widely used AI t ai i g c awle , compa ed with 39% of E glish-la guage outlets.Ba ks a d gove me ts a e wide ope . No e of the 29 ba ks, i su e s a d fi techs i the study blocks a AI c awle , a d 60 of 63 fede al, p ovi cial a d mu icipal sites block o e. O e p ovi cial gove me t, which blocks 11 AI c awle s, is the clea est exceptio .Media ow e s chose diffe e t st ategies. O e Quebec media g oup blocks AI t ai i g c awle s but leaves AI sea ch ope , o e atio al ewspape chai poi ts 19 pape s to a machi e- eadable co te t lice ce, a d two majo b oadcaste s block o AI c awle s at all.Some ules a e out of date. Ni e sites, seve al of them majo b oadcast ews ooms, block c awle ames that the AI compa y behi d them o lo ge lists, while leavi g its cu e t c awle without a ule.The home team gets o pass. 16 sites block the c awle of a Ca adia AI develope that eceived a $240 millio fede al fu di g commitme t i 2024, i cludi g seve al of the cou t y’s la gest atio al ews ooms.
“Whe most of Ca ada’s jou alism asks AI to stay out while ba ks, etaile s a d gove me ts let it i , what AI tools ca f eshly ead about the cou t y tilts towa d the people selli g somethi g,” said Je emy McWilliams, fou de of Chateau Mojo. “Blocki g ca make se se fo publishe s, because thei wo ds a e the p oduct. Most othe busi esses wa t to be fou d, a d a AI assista t ca ‘t ecomme d a compa y whose website it is ‘t allowed to ead. Ple ty of sites a e shutti g AI out by accide t th ough old templates a d fi ewall setti gs.”
The study cou ts a c awle as blocked o ly whe it is ba ed f om a site’s e ti e domai . It eflects what sites ask c awle s to do athe tha what c awle s actually do, a d it does ot captu e blocki g do e at the etwo k level. The full dataset, which ames eve y site a d eve y c awle , is f ee to use with c edit to Chateau Mojo.
The complete study, methodology a d dow loadable data a e available at chateaumojo.com/blog/ca ada-ai-c awle -study. Jou alists ca equest the aw obots.txt files o a custom cut of the data th ough the study page.
Chateau Mojo is a Ca adia SEO a d AI sea ch co sulta cy led by fou de Je emy McWilliams. I help b a ds get fou d i Google a d i AI a swe s f om ChatGPT a d Pe plexity. The wo k cove s tech ical SEO, co te t st ategy, a d AI visibility, mai ly fo suppleme ts, health a d well ess, B2B, ecomme ce, i dust ial, a d SaaS compa ies.
Je emy McWilliams je emy [at] chateaumojo.com https://chateaumojo.com/
