Meta Removes Scraping Language From Terms — SkimNews
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- Meta updated its commercial terms of use, declaring it could "use any content from [a business account's] domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of" its products and services.
- Legal experts interviewed by Nieman Lab called the provision "remarkable," saying it could grant Meta permission to scrape any publisher with a Meta business account and use that content to train AI models.
- A Meta spokesperson initially insisted the updated terms did not reflect a change in how the company crawls the web.
- The Verge reports the controversial provision has now been removed, with Meta stating the crawling terms "only applied to our ads and business products."
- Meta said in a statement: "It does not change how Meta uses web crawlers" — framing the removal as a clarification rather than a policy shift.
- While Meta defeated a high-profile copyright infringement lawsuit last year, other cases against AI companies — including Meta — remain active.
Why it matters: Meta's walk-back came after legal experts flagged the clause as potentially giving the company sweeping permission to scrape publisher content for AI training — and the company still faces active copyright and data-licensing lawsuits over similar practices, meaning how Meta defines "ads and business products" vs. general crawling is a live legal question.
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