Meta delays new business terms after publisher pushback
The terms could still let Meta use scraped news sites for AI training, legal experts say.
Policy#06
Nov 20
Date the new terms now take effect
Image: The Verge
Nov 20Date the new terms now take effect
The short version
- Meta is delaying enforcement of its new business terms to November 20th after publishers raised concerns about AI scraping.
- The terms were originally due to take effect on October 30th and appeared to let Meta scrape sites that use its platforms for AI training.
- Meta removed “training” from the terms, but legal experts say the change may not rule out training AI on scraped content.
- Meta says the update is not about scraping news sites and that content owners can still use robots.txt to signal their preferences.
Why it matters
The dispute centers on whether business terms can override robots.txt, the file that tells scrapers what they may crawl. For developers, crawler rules and site signals are now a live question. Publishers in the EU and UK have asked regulators to force Meta to halt the terms.
“is not about scraping news sites, and these updates don’t give us new rights that supersede those preferences.”