Overview
JavaScript is Iraq's most common secondary barrier
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 92.8% |
| Antibot | 20.9% |
| CAPTCHA | 22.5% |
| JavaScript | 42.2% |
| Rate Limiting | 14.5% |
| TLS | 18.3% |
WAF sits at 92.8%. JavaScript leads secondaries at 42.2%. CAPTCHA follows at 22.5%, Antibot at 20.9%, TLS at 18.3%, and Rate Limiting at 14.5%.
Barrier Landscape
JavaScript tops Iraq's active secondary defences
| Value | |
|---|---|
| WAF | 92.8% |
| Antibot | 20.9% |
| CAPTCHA | 22.5% |
| JavaScript | 42.2% |
| Rate Limiting | 14.5% |
| TLS | 18.3% |
| Has robots.txt | 79.7% |
| Blocks AI crawlers | 13.2% |
WAF dominates at 92.8%. JavaScript is the top secondary barrier at 42.2%. CAPTCHA follows at 22.5%, Antibot at 20.9%, TLS at 18.3%, and Rate Limiting at 14.5%.
Two-barrier sites are Iraq's most common configuration
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 0 barriers | 4.7% |
| 1 barrier | 28.8% |
| 2 barriers | 35% |
| 3 barriers | 18.2% |
| 4 barriers | 9% |
| 5 barriers | 3.9% |
| 6 barriers | 0.4% |
Two-barrier sites are the most common at 35.0%. Single-barrier sites account for 28.8%. Three or more barriers appear on 31.5% of sites. Barrier-free sites are 4.7%.
Most Iraq sites are Easy to access
| Mean recommended tier | |
|---|---|
| All sites | 1.7 |
The mean recommended browser tier of 1.69 reflects a large Tier 1 population. The median of 2 confirms fewer than half of sites resolve at the simplest level. The distribution is consistent with the pattern seen across this region.
Nearly nine in ten sites are Simple or Easy to access
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| 1 - Simple | 47.7% |
| 2 - Easy | 39.5% |
| 3 - Moderate | 9.6% |
| 4 - Complex | 2.1% |
| 5 - Advanced | 1.1% |
Tier 1 applies to 47.7% of sites and Tier 2 to 39.5%, together reaching 87.2%. Tier 3 is the lowest of this country group at 9.6%. Tiers 4 and 5 account for 3.2% combined.
robots.txt
AI crawlers top Iraq's robots.txt bot categories
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| AI crawlers | 14.9% |
| SEO / search indexing | 13% |
| SEO audit tools | 13.7% |
| Commercial scrapers | 8.2% |
| Social / content scrapers | 6.2% |
| Archive / research crawlers | 5.2% |
| Monitoring / uptime bots | 0.5% |
AI crawlers appear in robots.txt on 14.9% of all 1,089 Iraq sites. SEO audit tools follow at 13.7%, with SEO/search indexing at 13.0%. Archive and research crawlers are named by 5.2% of sites — the highest rate for that category in this country group.
Path-mixed rules are Iraq's most common robots.txt posture
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Uniform per-agent rules (no path mixing) | 40.4% |
| Path-level mixed rules for same agent | 33.7% |
| Allow-only (no disallow rules) | 3% |
| Mixed AI posture (block some, allow others) | 2% |
| Blanket Disallow: / | 2.5% |
Uniform per-agent rules apply to 40.4% of all sites — the lowest uniform share among the five countries. Path-level mixed rules cover 33.7%. Allow-only sites reach 3.0%. Sites with no robots.txt account for 20.3%.
GPTBot is the most blocked AI agent
| Disallowed | Allowed (whitelisted) | |
|---|---|---|
| GPTBot | 10.7% | 1.7% |
| CCBot | 8.4% | 0.7% |
| ClaudeBot | 8% | 0.6% |
| Google-Extended | 7.9% | 1.2% |
| Bytespider | 7.3% | 0.3% |
| meta-externalagent | 3.1% | — |
| ChatGPT-User | 5.3% | 2% |
| PerplexityBot | 5.6% | 1.7% |
| Applebot-Extended | 5.4% | 0.4% |
| OAI-SearchBot | 3.9% | 1.8% |
| anthropic-ai | 5.1% | 0.6% |
10.7% of all Iraq sites carry a Disallow for GPTBot — the lowest GPTBot block rate among the five countries in this group. CCBot and ClaudeBot follow at 8.4% and 8.0%. ChatGPT-User leads Allow rules at 2.0%.
Civil Engineering, Machinery, and Medical Devices name bots on every site
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Civil Engineering | 100% |
| Computer & Video Games | 100% |
| Design | 100% |
| Entertainment | 100% |
| Machinery | 100% |
| Medical Devices | 100% |
| Adult | 90% |
| Agriculture | 90% |
| Apparel & Fashion | 90% |
| Construction | 90% |
| Consulting | 90% |
| Consumer Electronics | 90% |
| Foreign Language | 90% |
| General | 90% |
| Mass Media | 90% |
Six sectors show every measured site naming at least one bot to restrict: Civil Engineering, Computer & Video Games, Design, Entertainment, Machinery, and Medical Devices. Nine further sectors sit at 90%.
Iraq's Airlines sites lead in explicitly allowing crawlers
| % of sites | |
|---|---|
| Airlines | 80% |
| Civil Engineering | 70% |
| Photography | 70% |
| Publishing | 70% |
| Retail | 70% |
| Science | 70% |
| Travel & Tourism | 70% |
| Architecture | 60% |
| Automotive | 60% |
| Construction | 60% |
| Crafts | 60% |
| Customer Services | 60% |
| Facilities Services | 60% |
| Graphic Design | 60% |
| IT Services | 60% |
Airlines leads explicit bot Allow rules at 80% of sites. Civil Engineering, Photography, Publishing, Retail, Science, and Travel & Tourism all sit at 70%. Civil Engineering appearing in both the block and allow top lists reflects a split posture within that sector.
Industry Patterns
Hospitality is the hardest sector to access programmatically
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hospitality | 90% | 20% | 0% | 60% | 30% | 40% | 50% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Jewellery & Luxury | 100% | 20% | 20% | 40% | 60% | 50% | 80% | 0% | Tier 3 |
| Real Estate | 100% | 10% | 10% | 50% | 50% | 30% | 60% | 20% | Tier 3 |
| Equipment & Supplies | 90% | 40% | 10% | 60% | 20% | 10% | 70% | 10% | Tier 3 |
| Medical Devices | 100% | 20% | 10% | 60% | 20% | 0% | 100% | 0% | Tier 3 |
| Automotive | 100% | 10% | 10% | 50% | 40% | 20% | 70% | 20% | Tier 2 |
| Retail | 100% | 10% | 0% | 70% | 20% | 10% | 90% | 40% | Tier 2 |
| Computer Hardware | 100% | 20% | 0% | 30% | 30% | 20% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Maritime | 90% | 30% | 10% | 50% | 20% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Apparel & Fashion | 100% | 20% | 30% | 70% | 20% | 30% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Human Resources | 100% | 70% | 60% | 40% | 50% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Restaurants | 90% | 30% | 20% | 50% | 40% | 10% | 40% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 70% | 20% | 10% | 30% | 30% | 30% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Oil & Gas | 90% | 10% | 20% | 50% | 10% | 10% | 80% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Renewable Energy | 90% | 0% | 10% | 60% | 10% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
Hospitality leads at a mean recommended tier of 2.90 — the highest hardest-sector figure of this country group. Jewellery & Luxury and Real Estate follow at 2.70. Equipment & Supplies rounds out the top four at 2.60.
Five sectors share the most accessible floor
| WAF | Antibot | CAPTCHA | JavaScript | Rate Limit | TLS | robots.txt | Blocks AI | Tier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sporting Goods | 100% | 10% | 20% | 50% | 30% | 30% | 70% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Wholesalers | 80% | 10% | 30% | 50% | 30% | 30% | 70% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Food & Beverages | 90% | 40% | 30% | 50% | 40% | 0% | 60% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Design | 100% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 20% | 30% | 100% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Furniture | 100% | 40% | 30% | 50% | 20% | 40% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Insurance | 70% | 20% | 20% | 20% | 10% | 10% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Mail & Delivery | 70% | 30% | 10% | 10% | 0% | 20% | 80% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Recruitment & Staffing | 90% | 40% | 60% | 10% | 0% | 20% | 70% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Reference | 80% | 60% | 30% | 30% | 20% | 10% | 50% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Wine & Spirits | 100% | 50% | 20% | 50% | 30% | 0% | 80% | 30% | Tier 2 |
| Adult | 100% | 40% | 30% | 80% | 10% | 20% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Consumer Electronics | 80% | 20% | 10% | 30% | 10% | 40% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
| Manufacturing | 80% | 10% | 10% | 30% | 0% | 40% | 70% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Printing | 100% | 10% | 20% | 30% | 10% | 10% | 90% | 0% | Tier 2 |
| Public Safety | 100% | 40% | 50% | 60% | 20% | 40% | 90% | 10% | Tier 2 |
Adult, Consumer Electronics, Manufacturing, Printing, and Public Safety all post a mean recommended tier of 1.90 — the floor for this sample. All carry a tier median of 2. The sector range in the bottom group is narrow, spanning 2.10 to 1.90.