Meta Walks Back AI Training Language Amid Publisher Backlash
AI-generated image · US National Wire
The social media giant tweaked its commercial terms of service after business accounts and publishers flagged expanded scraping permissions.
Meta has revised the updated terms of service for its business accounts following significant pushback from publishers and commercial entities. According to reporting from Engadget, the company initially proposed language that would have granted Meta the right to use web scrapers and automated tools to crawl domains and URLs associated with business accounts to "provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain" its products and services.
The proposed update, which was slated for October 30, caused alarm among digital publishers who hold business accounts on Instagram and Facebook. As Engadget notes via Nieman Lab, the concern was that Meta was attempting to secure broad rights to scrape the content of any website linked to those accounts.
In a subsequent quiet update, Meta removed the word "train" from the text. The revised terms now state that scraping will be used to "provide, develop, improve, research, and maintain advertising and business products," including tools to help users create ads and connect with interested customers. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone stated the company "clarified" the language to specify that the terms apply only to ads and business products, asserting that the changes were not intended to scrape news sites.
Despite these tweaks, Nieman Lab reports that legal experts view the revised terms as a "substantial expansion" of scraping permissions, noting that robots.txt preferences are not legally binding. The move comes amid a strained relationship with the media; Meta ended news payments in 2022 and removed its news tab in 2024.
Industry leaders have condemned the move. Danielle Coffey, CEO of the News/Media Alliance, called the rules "outrageous and probably illegal," while Theo Bamber, top executive of the UK's News Media Association, described the effort as a "shameless landgrab attempt" in a statement to Press Gazette.