Okay, so The Sun – yeah, that tabloid – thinks I'm a bot. Or you're a bot. Or anyone trying to, you know, actually use the internet for something other than doomscrolling through TikTok is a bot. This is their genius solution: a big, fat CAPTCHA page screaming about "automated access" and threatening legal action.

The War on Bots (or Users?)

Give me a break. Last time I checked, reading an article (or trying to, anyway) didn't require some kind of Turing test. Now, I get it. Scraping is bad. Data mining is… well, it depends on who's doing it, doesn't it? But blanket-blocking anyone who looks sideways at their website? That's not security; that's just being a digital bully.

They claim it's about protecting their content, preventing those pesky AI overlords from slurping up all their intellectual property. Fine. But what about the actual humans who just want to, I don't know, read the news? Are we collateral damage in this war on robots? I guess so.

And the irony is thick enough to choke on. This is The Sun we're talking about. A paper that built its empire on… let's just say "borrowing" ideas and images from everywhere but their own imagination. Now they're worried about content theft? That's rich.

The Email Black Hole

Oh, and if you are a "legitimate user" (their words, not mine, offcourse), they generously offer a lifeline: email their customer support. Yeah, because that's always a smooth, efficient process. I can just picture the overflowing inbox, the automated replies, the endless loop of "we're sorry for the inconvenience." It's customer service Kabuki theater.

Here's the kicker: they want you to contact them at help@thesun.co.uk. To prove you're not a bot. By sending an email. To a system that clearly thinks anything automated is evil. Does that make any sense? It's like trying to convince a paranoid schizophrenic that you're not part of the conspiracy by… joining the conspiracy.

And what happens when you email them? Do you get a personalized apology? A free subscription? A heartfelt promise to do better? Don't hold your breath. You'll probably get an automated response saying, "We're experiencing unusually high volumes of inquiries…" or worse, nothing at all.

The Future of Fences

This isn't just about The Sun being annoying. It's a sign of things to come. As AI gets more sophisticated, and as media companies get more desperate to protect their dwindling revenue streams, expect to see more of these digital barricades. More CAPTCHAs, more paywalls, more convoluted schemes to separate the "real" users from the "bots." The internet as we knew it—open, accessible, relatively free—is dying a slow, painful death by a thousand cuts.

Then again, maybe I'm the crazy one here. Maybe everyone is a bot except for me. Maybe The Sun is actually doing us a favor by keeping the robots at bay. Nah. I don't buy it. This feels more like a clumsy attempt to control the narrative, to lock down their content, to squeeze every last penny out of their readers. And honestly… it's just depressing.

They're Building a Walled Garden (and Charging Admission)