Meta removes language that raised scraping and AI training concerns
Meta removes language that raised scraping and AI training concerns
Meta removed wording in its commercial terms that allowed content from business-account websites to be used to develop, improve and train its products. Legal experts had previously said the clause could authorize Meta to scrape any publisher's website with a business account to train AI models. Meta responded that the consolidated scraping clause applies only to ads and commercial products, and that its use of web crawlers has not changed.
Meta recently updated its commercial terms of use, declaring that the company can “use any content from [a business account’s] domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of” Meta products and services.
According to legal experts interviewed by Nieman Lab, this looked like a “remarkable provision” that could give Meta permission to scrape the website of any publisher with a Meta business account and use the content to train the company’s AI models. (While Meta defeated a high-profile lawsuit over alleged copyright infringement last year, other cases against AI companies, including Meta, continue.)
However, a Meta spokesperson insisted that the updated terms did not reflect a change in the way Meta crawls the web. And now, The Verge reports that the provision has been removed.
“We’ve heard you and want to clarify: the crawling terms we consolidated only applied to our ads and business products, and we’ve clarified that in the terms themselves,” the company said in a statement. “It does not change how Meta uses web crawlers.”
Source: TechCrunch · AI · techcrunch.com