Meta has removed a controversial clause from its commercial terms that legal experts said would let the company scrape news websites to train its AI models. The clause disappeared from Meta’s terms page on Saturday after widespread criticism from publishers and legal observers.
The original language allowed Meta to use content from “domains, web pages, or URLs” linked to business accounts to “provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain” its products. Since nearly every news publisher holds a business account on Facebook or Instagram, experts warned the clause could give Meta free access to content worth millions in licensing fees. The following clause was removed:
… Meta may use any content from such domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of, the Meta Company Products, services, and features provided under these Commercial Terms and any other applicable supplemental terms.
Nieman Lab first reported the terms on October 15, prompting swift backlash. Cornell law professor James Grimmelmann warned that the terms could also override publishers’ robots.txt files. In addition, the clause authorized Meta to create “test credentials” to access websites. Grimmelmann said this could let Meta register as a fake user to bypass registration walls. Furthermore, the News/Media Alliance called the terms “outrageous and probably illegal.”
Meta then updated the US English version of the terms. It dropped the word “train” from the list of permitted uses and limited the scope to “advertising and business products.” A spokesperson said the consolidated crawling terms “only applied to our ads and business products.” However, experts remain skeptical. The News/Media Alliance said removing one word from a list does not prohibit the underlying use.
Meanwhile, the UK English and Korean editions of the terms still contain the original “train” language. A comparison on October 18 confirmed that neither edition had adopted the narrower US wording. As a result, international publishers may still face the broader clause when the updated terms take effect on October 30.
The European Publishers Council has already said it will seek scrutiny from EU regulators over the terms. Similarly, the UK News Media Association called for government intervention. Consequently, Meta faces growing regulatory pressure on both sides of the Atlantic as it tries to expand its AI training pipeline.