Meta removes language that raised scraping and AI training concerns

Why it matters

Meta has withdrawn a clause from its commercial terms of use that had alarmed legal experts. The language stated that Meta could use content from business accounts' domains, web pages, and URLs to develop, improve, research, and train its products. Legal experts interviewed by Nieman Lab characterized the provision as remarkable, warning it could be read as permission to scrape publishers' websites for AI training whenever those publishers held a Meta business account. The episode unfolded against a backdrop of ongoing litigation over alleged copyright infringement involving AI companies, including Meta, which prevailed in one high-profile suit last year while other cases continue. A Meta spokesperson maintained that the terms never altered how the company's web crawlers operate, and The Verge reports the provision has now been removed. In a statement, Meta said it had heard the concerns and clarified within the terms that the consolidated crawling language applied only to its ads and business products. The reversal highlights how quickly companies can retreat from ambiguous licensing language when publishers and lawyers push back.