The Pulse
Meta Drops AI-Training Language From Business Terms
Meta removed explicit AI-training language from revised commercial terms, but the terms still permit broad crawling of business-linked websites. Legal experts cited by Nieman Journalism Lab say the remaining language leaves important questi
AI.info Team · Written with AI ·
Meta says the change clarifies; critics say the permission stays broad
Meta revised its forthcoming commercial terms on Friday afternoon, October 16, removing explicit AI-training language but leaving unresolved questions about what the company may collect from business-linked websites. A Meta spokesperson said the revision clarified that the crawling terms applied to advertising and business products. Legal experts quoted by Nieman Journalism Lab argue that the revised permission remains broad enough to cover extensive collection and product development.
The change followed concern over a clause in terms scheduled to take effect October 30. The earlier version said Meta could use content from associated domains, pages and URLs to “provide, develop, improve, research, train” and maintain its products. The revised text removes “train” and limits the listed purposes to advertising and business products, according to Nieman Lab.
“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, in a statement reported by Nieman Journalism Lab
The spokesperson also said: “This is not about scraping news sites, and these updates don’t give us new rights that supersede those preferences.”
The word “train” is gone; the crawling permission remains
The revision still authorizes automated software—including scrapers, bots and crawlers—to access, index, cache, analyze and collect content from websites associated with a business’s products or services. It also permits Meta to pull updates from those pages. The company describes the permitted purposes as providing, developing, improving and researching advertising and business products, as well as maintaining product integrity and security.
Matt Topic, a media and intellectual-property attorney at Loevy & Loevy, told Nieman Lab:
“I think publishers should remain concerned. The revised version of the new terms still allows Meta to use that scraped content to develop any ‘business product.’ That doesn’t seem to be a defined term, and presumably Meta is developing AI business products. I think ‘develop’ is broad enough to include ‘train.’”
Matt Topic, media and intellectual-property attorney at Loevy & Loevy
Meta lists ads, Meta Business Tools and Meta Business Suite as examples of business products.
Meta has said the clause consolidates terms that previously appeared in its Ad Creative Generative AI Terms. Nieman Lab reported that the existing terms allowed scraping in a narrower situation—when an account used Meta’s generative AI features to run ads—and limited the use to optimizing those ads. The new language places crawling permission in broader commercial terms and refers to advertising and business products generally.
Robots.txt divides Meta’s assurance from the contract text
Meta says website operators can use robots.txt files to signal that crawlers should stay away, and that the update does not give the company rights that supersede those preferences. The revised terms do not specifically promise to respect robots.txt instructions, Nieman Lab reported. Meta’s assurance and the written contract have therefore become points of disagreement: the company describes the change as a clarification, while critics question whether the assurance is enforceable under the terms.
James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and information law at Cornell Law School, told Nieman Lab that the revised purpose language does not narrow which pages Meta can reach. He said the wording about sites “associated with your products or services” still could allow Meta to scrape entire websites.
Business terms take effect October 30
The revised terms are scheduled to take effect October 30, and Nieman Lab reported that business accounts have no option to opt out before then. That leaves publishers with questions not only about the removed training reference, but also about what the remaining crawling and product-development language permits once the terms apply.
Meta’s position is that crawling rules are unchanged and site owners can still express preferences through robots.txt. Critics point to the absence of an explicit robots.txt commitment in the revised contract and to the continuing permission to collect material from business-linked sites. On October 30, the new terms are due to govern those accounts with the revised language in place.