Meta drops "train" from new business terms after publisher backlash
Meta removed the word "train" from new terms for business accounts after news groups objected. The old wording seemed to let Meta use content from linked websites to train its AI. Legal experts consulted by Nieman Lab said the new terms still allow broad scraping of those sites.
Meta has removed the word "train" from new terms of service for business accounts after publishers and legal experts said the wording could let it use content scraped from news sites to train its AI, Nieman Lab and The Verge reported.
The deleted passage said Meta could use content from websites linked to business accounts to "provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain" its products, The Verge reported. The revised terms limit those uses to "advertising and business products," Nieman Lab reported.
"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," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement, The Verge reported. "As always, content owners can use robots.txt to signal their preferences."
A Meta spokesperson said Saturday that news sites "still have the ability to disable the crawler via robots.txt flags," Nieman Lab reported. The revised terms do not include specific language about honoring robots.txt, Nieman Lab reported. They take effect October 30, and business accounts cannot opt out, it said.
Legal experts consulted by Nieman Lab said the change does not go far enough. A media and intellectual property lawyer said, "I think 'develop' is broad enough to include 'train.'" Cornell law professor James Grimmelmann said the business-products language is "still broad enough to drive a truck through."
Publisher groups had objected to the terms, Nieman Lab reported. The European Publishers Council said it would petition European Union regulators, and the head of the News/Media Alliance called the update "outrageous and probably illegal."
Earlier, Meta's communications chief and a spokesperson had said, "There is no change to how Meta uses web crawlers; any suggestion to the contrary is false," The Verge reported.
What we know: Meta removed "train" from its business terms but kept broad permission to crawl linked websites.
What we don't: Whether publishers or regulators will act before the terms take effect October 30.
Where outlets agree Nieman Lab and The Verge report that Meta removed language from its new business terms that experts said could let it train AI on content scraped from linked websites.
Where they differ Nieman Lab says Meta published the revision Friday afternoon, while The Verge, writing Saturday morning, describes the change as that day's update.