AI crawler access report

torontosun.com

https://torontosun.com/ · checked 2026-11-04 09:30 UTC · served by istio-envoy

Silent block: requests as AI search crawlers are rejected

robots.txt says they’re welcome, but our requests with their user agents were rejected while a browser and a Googlebot request got through. Open a row for what we saw and how to confirm it.

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Can they get inC4 AI search crawlers silently blocked by the firewall Can they read itSEvery official and common check passes Can they cite itA4 of 5 citation signals; missing Organization

China search & AI engines (not graded): 2 of 7 can get in. Blocked: Bytespider, PetalBot, Sogou web spider, 360Spider, YisouSpider

How we grade

Each layer is graded on its own; there’s no overall score. Only checks marked “Official docs” or “Common practice” count; hypotheses and notes don’t. Blocking training crawlers costs nothing: that’s your call.

Can they get in: S, every AI search crawler got in; A, all get in but some hit a challenge or a thinner page, or the live test didn’t finish and only robots.txt was checked; B, some AI search crawlers are blocked; C, all are blocked, a silent block was found, or the homepage is noindex. A robots.txt that returns 5xx or can’t be reached counts as “disallow everything” under RFC 9309.
Can they read it: S, nothing to improve; A, one item; B, two or three, or a non-critical problem; C, indexing or snippets are blocked, the text needs JavaScript, or four or more items need work.
Can they cite it: five signals (structured data, organization, site name, share card, semantic tags). S all five, A four, B two or three, C one or none; a JSON-LD parse error, or FAQ markup whose questions aren’t on the page, caps it at B.

Rules version 2026-11-02.2 · Full grading method

AI search crawlers reachable

2 / 6

Silent firewall blocks

Training crawlers blocked

2 / 2

Text without JavaScript

14,554 chars

Crawler by crawler Open Details for the evidence

Crawler	Purpose	robots.txt	Live request	Result
AI search & user-triggered
OAI-SearchBot OpenAI	AI search	Partly	403	Silent block
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the OAI-SearchBot user agent returned `http_403`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the OAI-SearchBot user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for OAI-SearchBot requests coming from OpenAI’s published IP ranges (linked on the OAI-SearchBot page) and check which rule they hit.
ChatGPT-User OpenAI	User-triggered	Partly	403	Silent block
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the ChatGPT-User user agent returned `http_403`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the ChatGPT-User user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for ChatGPT-User requests coming from OpenAI’s published IP ranges (linked on the ChatGPT-User page) and check which rule they hit.
PerplexityBot Perplexity	AI search	Partly	403	Silent block
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the PerplexityBot user agent returned `http_403`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the PerplexityBot user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for PerplexityBot requests coming from Perplexity’s published IP ranges (linked on the PerplexityBot page) and check which rule they hit.
Perplexity-User Perplexity	User-triggered	Partly	403	Silent block
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the Perplexity-User user agent returned `http_403`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the Perplexity-User user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for Perplexity-User requests coming from Perplexity’s published IP ranges (linked on the Perplexity-User page) and check which rule they hit.
Claude-SearchBot Anthropic	AI search	Partly	200 OK	Reachable
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the Claude-SearchBot user agent got the same page a browser gets. robots.txt: Partly. What it suggests No sign of a block for this crawler.
Claude-User Anthropic	User-triggered	Partly	200 OK	Reachable
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the Claude-User user agent got the same page a browser gets. robots.txt: Partly. What it suggests No sign of a block for this crawler.
China search & AI engines (not graded)
Bytespider ByteDance	AI search	Partly	403	Silent block
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the Bytespider user agent returned `http_403`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the Bytespider user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for Bytespider requests coming from ByteDance’s published IP ranges (linked on the Bytespider page) and check which rule they hit.
PetalBot Huawei	AI search	Partly	403	Silent block
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the PetalBot user agent returned `http_403`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the PetalBot user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for PetalBot requests coming from Huawei’s published IP ranges (linked on the PetalBot page) and check which rule they hit.
Sogou web spider 搜狗（腾讯）	AI search	Partly	403	Silent block
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the Sogou web spider user agent returned `http_403`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the Sogou web spider user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for Sogou web spider requests coming from 搜狗（腾讯）’s published IP ranges (linked on the Sogou web spider page) and check which rule they hit.
360Spider 360	AI search	Partly	403	Silent block
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the 360Spider user agent returned `http_403`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the 360Spider user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for 360Spider requests coming from 360’s published IP ranges (linked on the 360Spider page) and check which rule they hit.
YisouSpider 神马搜索（阿里）	AI search	Partly	403	Silent block
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the YisouSpider user agent returned `http_403`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the YisouSpider user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for YisouSpider requests coming from 神马搜索（阿里）’s published IP ranges (linked on the YisouSpider page) and check which rule they hit.
Kimi-SearchBot 月之暗面 Kimi	AI search	Partly	200 OK	Reachable
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the Kimi-SearchBot user agent got the same page a browser gets. robots.txt: Partly. What it suggests No sign of a block for this crawler.
Kimi-User 月之暗面 Kimi	User-triggered	Partly	200 OK	Reachable
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the Kimi-User user agent got the same page a browser gets. robots.txt: Partly. What it suggests No sign of a block for this crawler.
AI training
GPTBot OpenAI	Training	Partly	403	Silent block
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the GPTBot user agent returned `http_403`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the GPTBot user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for GPTBot requests coming from OpenAI’s published IP ranges (linked on the GPTBot page) and check which rule they hit.
ClaudeBot Anthropic	Training	Partly	403	Silent block
What we observed GET https://torontosun.com/ with the ClaudeBot user agent returned `http_403`. Same URL as a browser: 200 · with a Googlebot user agent: 200 · as an unknown bot: 200. What it suggests The rejection follows the ClaudeBot user agent, not bots in general: most likely a rule aimed at AI crawlers. High confidence. How to confirm In your CDN or WAF logs, look for ClaudeBot requests coming from Anthropic’s published IP ranges (linked on the ClaudeBot page) and check which rule they hit.

How to fix

Your server or security layer (istio-envoy) rejects these user agents. Look for user-agent block lists in your WAF, security plugin (Wordfence, Sucuri), or web-server config.

Crawlers to allow for AI search: OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot, Perplexity-User, Bytespider, PetalBot, Sogou web spider, 360Spider, YisouSpider.

Fix guides for Cloudflare, CloudFront, WordPress and Shopify →

Can they read it 10 pass · 0 to improve · 0 problems

Whether search engines and AI can parse and index your homepage

Pass
Page title
“Home | Toronto Sun Home Page | Toronto Sun”.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Meta description
“Read latest breaking news, updates, and headlines. Toronto Sun offers information on lates…”.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Indexing and snippets allowed
No noindex or nosnippet.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Canonical URL
Points to https://torontosun.com/.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Text without JavaScript
14,554 characters are readable without JavaScript.
Official docs ↗
Pass
H1 heading
“Home | Toronto Sun Home Page | Toronto Sun”.
Common practice
Pass
Sitemap
Found: https://torontosun.com/sitemap.xml.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Internal links
135 internal links on the homepage.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Image alt text
101 of 106 images have alt text.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Mobile viewport
Viewport is set.
Official docs ↗

Can they cite it 5 pass · 1 to improve · 0 problems

Signals that help AI recognize and quote you

Improve
Organization
Organization has no name.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Structured data
4 blocks: WebPage, WebSite, Organization, ItemList.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Site name
“Toronto Sun”.
Official docs ↗
Pass
Question-and-answer sections
3 question headings, 3 followed by a direct answer (e.g. “What the Maple Leafs have missed most without injured John T”).
Hypothesis
Pass
Semantic tags
Uses <main> or <article>, so the main content is easy to find.
Common practice
Pass
Share card
Has og:title and og:image.
Common practice
Note
Published and updated dates
No date signals. Homepages rarely need them; articles do.
Official docs ↗
Note
Author
No author on the homepage. Name authors on articles.
Common practice
Note
llms.txt
None. Google says it isn’t needed; other AI providers haven’t said whether they read it. Optional.
Hypothesis

Google says there are no extra requirements for AI Overviews and no special AI files or markup are needed: the page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet. So we list facts you can verify, and anything marked “Hypothesis” is only a suggestion.

How we test, and what it can’t tell you

We request your homepage from a data-center IP as a normal browser, with a Googlebot user agent, as an unknown bot, and with each AI crawler’s user agent. We don’t come from the crawlers’ own networks, so a site that verifies crawler IP addresses may treat the real crawler differently. The control groups separate a rule aimed at AI crawlers (high confidence) from a general bot rule (medium) or an IP-verification rule (low). To be certain, check your CDN or WAF logs for requests from the crawler’s published IP ranges. Methodology

Page checks

Page titlePresent
noindexNo
nosnippetNo
Content without JSOK
robots.txtFound
llms.txt (optional)None

torontosun.com

Silent block: requests as AI search crawlers are rejected

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Can they read it 10 pass · 0 to improve · 0 problems

Can they cite it 5 pass · 1 to improve · 0 problems

How we test, and what it can’t tell you

Page checks

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