Meta's New Terms Could Let It Scrape News Sites to Train Its AI

Meta is updating its commercial terms, potentially giving the company permission to scrape websites belonging to businesses that use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Legal experts warn that the changes could allow Meta to collect news articles and other publisher content for AI training without separate licensing agreements.

According to a Nieman Lab report, the updated terms will take effect on October 30, 2026, and apply to businesses using Meta’s services for commercial purposes.

The new language allows Meta to crawl and collect content from websites associated with those businesses. Meta could then use the material to develop, improve, research, and train its products and services.

Businesses that reject the changes may have to stop using Meta’s platforms commercially.

Legal experts warn Meta could bypass publisher restrictions

The updated terms have raised concerns among legal experts, particularly about their potential impact on news publishers.

Cornell law professor James Grimmelmann argues that the language could give Meta permission to use publishers’ content for AI training and potentially incorporate that material into competing products.

The concern extends to websites that explicitly restrict automated crawlers. Legal experts suggest Meta could argue that businesses already granted permission through the commercial agreement, potentially overriding restrictions communicated through robots.txt.

Such an interpretation could allow Meta to collect publisher content without negotiating individual licensing agreements.

Meta denies targeting news publishers

Meta disputes that interpretation and says the changes do not introduce new web crawling practices.

Company spokesperson Daniel Roberts described the update as a consolidation of existing commercial and advertising terms. He also maintained that website owners can continue using robots.txt to communicate their crawling preferences.

Meta communications executive Andy Stone said the changes aim to help Meta retrieve accurate product information from third-party websites for advertising and content recommendations.

Stone specifically denied that the update targets news publishers.

However, the disagreement leaves questions about how broadly Meta could interpret the new permissions, particularly when businesses use its commercial services while restricting access to their websites.

Via The Verge