Meta removes language that raised scraping and AI training concerns
News Source
β’Sat, 17 Oct 2026 21:31:32 +0000
π° What Happened
Meta changed its business terms so it could use content from business accounts "to provide, develop, improve, research, train" its products. Lawyers told Nieman Lab this looked like permission to scrape any publisher's website and train AI on it.
Meta said nothing had changed in how it crawls the web. The Verge now reports the wording has been removed.
In its statement, Meta said the terms only covered its ads and business products, and that it had made that clearer.
π The Backstory
AI companies need huge amounts of text and images to train models. Much of that data is scraped from websites without asking.
Publishers say this takes their work for free. Several have sued, and Meta won a major copyright case last year. Other cases are still moving through court.
Small wording changes in a contract can matter a lot. One line can decide whether a site owner has agreed to let a company use their pages.
π― Why It Matters
If you run a small website or shop, unclear terms can decide whether your words train an AI model. It pays to read what a platform asks you to accept.
Meta changed its business terms so it could use content from business accounts "to provide, develop, improve, research, train" its products. Lawyers told Nieman Lab this looked like permission to scrape any publisher's website and train AI on it.
Meta said nothing had changed in how it crawls the web. The Verge now reports the wording has been removed.
In its statement, Meta said the terms only covered its ads and business products, and that it had made that clearer.
AI companies need huge amounts of text and images to train models. Much of that data is scraped from websites without asking.
Publishers say this takes their work for free. Several have sued, and Meta won a major copyright case last year. Other cases are still moving through court.
Small wording changes in a contract can matter a lot. One line can decide whether a site owner has agreed to let a company use their pages.
If you run a small website or shop, unclear terms can decide whether your words train an AI model. It pays to read what a platform asks you to accept.