Meta Tweaks Its Terms Of Service After Backlash Against Scraping

Meta has updated its commercial terms for business accounts after a swift backlash against an update scheduled to take effect on October 30. The company removed a reference to AI training from the revised language, but questions remain about its ability to scrape the websites of publishers and other businesses that hold accounts on its platforms.

What Changed In The Terms

Meta initially shared the planned update to its commercial terms last week. The original language stated that Meta would have the right to use web scrapers and other automated tools "to access, index, cache, analyze, collect, retrieve, or crawl the domains, web pages, or URLs" associated with business accounts on the platform. The terms also said Meta may use content from such domains to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain its products, services, and features.

The update alarmed publishers and other businesses. As Nieman Lab reported, the language appeared to give Meta the right to scrape the content of any website that also has a business account on Facebook or Instagram, a group that includes the vast majority of digital publishers.

Meta's Clarification

Meta then quietly updated the terms again. It removed the word "train" and added that scraping would be used "in order to provide, develop, improve, research, and maintain advertising and business products."

In a statement, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the company had "clarified" the language to reflect that the new terms apply "only to our ads and business products." He said the changes "were not about scraping news sites" and that the company was not changing how it uses web crawlers. Stone also said the updates "don't give us new rights to supersede" content owners' robots.txt preferences.

Continuing Concerns

Nieman Lab reported that the revised terms are still "a substantial expansion of Meta's scraping permissions." A number of legal experts told the publication that Meta is permitted to scrape news websites with seemingly few restrictions under the revised terms. robots.txt is not legally binding, and AI companies regularly evade robots.txt instructions.

Media groups have reacted sharply. Danielle Coffey, CEO of the News/Media Alliance, said the rules "are outrageous and probably illegal." Theo Bamber, the top executive of the UK's News Media Association, called it a "shameless landgrab attempt."

Meta has had a tumultuous relationship with news publishers. The company stopped paying for news in 2022 and killed its dedicated news tab in 2024. More recently, it has cut a handful of deals with outlets to provide news content for its AI chatbot.

Sources: Engadget