Meta's new commercial terms accused of allowing scraping of publisher content to train AI, with related wording later removed
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According to Nieman Lab, Meta's new business terms taking effect on October 30, 2026 allow it to use crawlers to scrape website content associated with business accounts to develop, improve, and train its AI products. Ars Technica subsequently reported that the terms require business accounts to authorize Meta's crawlers to access content on their linked websites, with no opt-out; legal experts said this could be used to bypass paying news organizations millions of dollars in licensing fees, and criticized it as allowing Meta to scrape content from news sites and other publishers for free. On October 17, 2026, The Verge reported that Meta updated its business terms, removing wording interpreted as permitting scraping of content including news websites for AI training—wording that Cornell digital and information law professor James Grimmelmann and others had said could override robots.txt blocking instructions. On October 18, TechCrunch confirmed that Meta removed the language in its commercial services terms allowing the use of business-account website content to develop, improve, and train its products. Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts responded that the crawler terms only apply to advertising and business products, that the company's use of web crawlers has not changed, and that content owners can still express preferences via robots.txt.
AI overview of reporting · Updated 11 h前
Developments
2 developments
- 10/17 23:04 · 2 reportsMeta removes clause allowing news site scraping to train AIThe Verge · AI：Meta removes language that may have allowed it to scrape news sites
- 10/16 22:02 · 2 reportsMeta's New Terms Could Let It Freely Scrape Publisher Content to Train AIThe Verge · AI：Meta’s new terms may allow it to train AI on news sites for free
Reporting timeline
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- TechCrunch · AIMeta 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.
- The Verge · AIMeta removes language that may have allowed it to scrape news sites
Meta updated its commercial terms, removing wording interpreted as allowing scraping of content including news sites for AI training, which Cornell digital and information law professor James Grimmelmann and others said could override robots.txt blocking directives. Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts responded that the scraping clause applies only to ads and commercial products, the company's use of web crawlers has not changed, and content owners can still express preferences via robots.txt.
- Ars Technica · AIMeta may use sweeping new commercial TOS to avoid millions in AI licensing fees
Meta will update its commercial terms on October 30, requiring business accounts to authorize Meta's crawlers to access content on their linked sites with no opt-out. Legal experts say this could be used to bypass paying news organizations millions of dollars in licensing fees.
- The Verge · AIMeta’s new terms may allow it to train AI on news sites for free
According to Nieman Lab, Meta's new commercial terms taking effect October 30 allow its crawlers to scrape website content linked to business accounts for developing, improving and training its AI products.
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