reddit and several major publishers are re-evaluating the amount of access they offer to Google as search referral traffic declines following the launch of AI Summariesaccording to a Wall Street Journal report cited by TechSpot.
Companies considering imposing restrictions include Reddit, USA Today, Reuters, Politico, The Economist and People Inc. The concern is that Google’s artificial intelligence features provide answers directly to users without redirecting traffic to the original sources.
Following the report, Reddit shares fell as much as 5.8% in premarket trading.
Reddit considers blocking Google’s use of artificial intelligence in its posts
Reddit has discussed the possibility of blocking Google from using its collection of user posts for artificial intelligence purposes, according to the Wall Street Journal. The two companies are currently negotiating a possible renewal of a licensing agreement signed in 2024, which reportedly pays Reddit around $60 million a year.
Under the existing deal, Google receives a continuously updated feed of human conversations to train its AI models, while Reddit received tens of millions of dollars ahead of its IPO.
TechSpot reports that this deal now appears less advantageous for Reddit, as Google’s AI products use the licensed data to answer questions without directing users to Reddit.
The drop in traffic is not limited to Reddit. USA Today Co. is considering blocking Google’s crawler if the number of referrals continues to decline. According to Semrush data cited by TechSpot, US Google organic traffic to the national site USA Today dropped nearly in half between June 2025 and June 2026. Traffic from Politico was down 23%, CNN saw a drop of about 25%, and Business Insider saw a decline of more than 85%.
USA Today Co. CEO Mike Reed said, “It’s time to take a stand and say enough is enough.”
Google opt-out controls create compensation for publishers
Google offers publishers a variety of controls to manage how their content is tracked and used, but each option has its own trade-offs. Publishers can prevent content from training Gemini using Google’s extended token, but doing so risks losing visibility in traditional search results as well as AI overviews.
More restrictive measures, such as the noindex directive, remove pages from Google entirely, while nosnippet can limit a page’s presence in search listings.
This connection between AI features and standard search rankings presents a key challenge for publishers who want to opt out of AI overviews without abandoning search results entirely.
UK regulators are addressing this issue. Last month, the UK Competition and Markets Authority ordered Google to allow publishers to opt out of using AI search features without risking their position in regular results.
Google has announced plans to test these controls in Britain before making them available globally, but has not provided any timeline.
Click data shows the impact of AI overviews
A Pew Research Center study last year found that users clicked on traditional links in 15 percent of searches that did not include an overview of AI. When an Overview appeared, that number dropped to 8 percent. Clicks on links within Google AI summaries occurred in just 1 percent of searches.
Google reports that its AI features still drive billions of website visits each week and help publishers expand their audiences. The company has started paying more than 200 publishers for access to AI and allows users to choose their preferred news sources.
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince warned that AI digests could be damaging the web’s business model, noting that bots now account for about 56 percent of Internet traffic.
Site operators evaluating their own exposure to potential traffic losses due to AI overviews can take several specific actions based on current controls:
- Measure the proportion of organic Google traffic reaching key pages by comparing data from June 2025 to June 2026, as mentioned in SEMrush data, to identify any declines.
- Check if the Google Extended Token is present in robots.txt, which blocks Gemini training content but does not prevent it from appearing in AI overviews.
- Consider the implications of the nosnippet and noindex directives, as both can reduce or eliminate standard search visibility rather than just affecting AI overviews.
- Monitor the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s program to allow users to opt out, as Google has said it will test separate checks in Britain before any wider rollout.
- Assess eligibility for Google’s Publisher Payments program, which currently provides funding to over 200 publishers for access to AI.
What will happen next with the editors?
Google has not set a timetable for extending the UK’s opt-out controls to other markets, and it is not yet clear what the outcome of Reddit’s license renewal negotiations will be.
For most publishers, the available controls still present the choice between including your content in AI Overview or maintaining standard search visibility. This restriction continues outside the UK until Google implements its independent opt-out mechanism.
