Meta drops 'train' from new business terms after publishers object to a web-scraping clause

Meta has revised its upcoming commercial terms for business accounts after criticism that they would let it scrape websites linked to those accounts, including news sites, and use the content to train its AI, as reported by Nieman Lab and The Verge on 17 October. The earlier wording said Meta could use content from such domains to "provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of" its products. According to Nieman Lab, the revised text removes the word "train" and limits use of crawled content to "advertising and business products", but legal experts it consulted said the permission to crawl remains broad and "develop" could still cover AI training. A Meta spokesperson said the crawling terms only applied to ads and business products, that the update does not change how Meta uses web crawlers, and that content owners can still use robots.txt to signal their preferences; Nieman Lab notes the revised terms do not mention robots.txt. The new terms are due to take effect on 30 October. The European Publishers Council said it would ask EU authorities to scrutinise the terms, and the UK's News Media Association called on ministers and regulators to intervene.

What it means for business: companies and publishers with Meta business accounts may want to review the new commercial terms before 30 October and check how their sites handle crawlers.