Meta Pauses New Commercial Terms That Would Let It Use Business Content for AI Training

Meta has put a planned update to its commercial terms of use on pause after widespread backlash over language that would have allowed the company to use content from business domains, web pages, or URLs to develop and improve its products, including for AI training. The company had first pushed the change from October 30 to November 20, but now says the update will not take effect on November 20, 2026 and that its existing terms remain in effect.

What Meta Paused

Meta said it had been updating the Meta Commercial Terms, Product Catalog Terms, Self-Serve Ad Terms, and Ad Creative Generative AI Terms. Those updates are now paused, and Meta said it is continuing to consult with stakeholders and will provide a further update when it has more to share.

Why The Terms Drew Backlash

The planned terms would have required business accounts to allow Meta to "use any content from such domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of" Meta's products. Journalists and users objected to Meta reaching beyond Instagram and Facebook and into their websites to use their work as training data for generative AI products.

Legal And Regulatory Pressure

The Los Angeles Times first reported the change. Following a case supported by the Norwegian Media Businesses' Association and 180 Norwegian media companies, a court in Norway granted a temporary injunction suspending Meta's new terms. The UK Competition and Markets Authority said it would conduct its own investigation into the terms.

Changes Meta Made Before The Pause

After pushing the update to November, Meta removed the word "train" from a list of allowed use cases, according to Nieman Lab. It also limited those uses to "advertising and business products," where previously it had said that data would be used for all Meta products.

Earlier coverage: Meta-მ ახალი ბიზნეს პირობების გადავადებას განიხილავს, რადგან უკმაყოფილება იზრდება

Sources: 404 Media