Meta pauses new terms that let it scrape sites for AI

Meta has paused a change to its Facebook business terms after heavy pushback. The change would have forced page owners to let Meta collect content from websites they link to, and that content could have been used for AI. A Meta spokesperson told Reuters the company is pausing the changes and that the existing terms remain in effect.

What the new terms said

Businesses had no way to opt out. To keep a Facebook business page, they had to let Meta crawl any external site they linked to. Crawling means automated software visiting pages and copying what is on them. The terms even asked publishers to create test logins so Meta's bots could get past paywalls.

Why people objected

Legal experts warned Nieman Lab that the vague wording could let Meta ignore robots.txt, a file where site owners say what automated visitors may collect. Nearly every news publisher has a Facebook page, so Meta might have avoided paying millions in licensing fees.

Theo Bamber, chief executive of the UK's News Media Association, wrote on LinkedIn: "Does Meta think we can't read?" He said dropping the word "train" did little, because "develop" posed the same threat.

Courts and lawmakers step in

• The terms were due October 30, then pushed back to November 20.
• Courts in Brazil and Norway issued preliminary injunctions blocking them.
• The UK's Competition and Markets Authority opened a formal investigation.
• Senators Adam Schiff and Marsha Blackburn asked Mark Zuckerberg to withdraw them.

What Meta says and what is unclear

On October 28, Meta communications chief Andy Stone said the company would not change policy without full consultation with industry groups. He said that process could run past November 20, and Meta would then delay the new terms. Meta also says its crawling practices are unchanged and that robots.txt still works.

Nieman Lab noted that Meta's revised terms still include no specific language about respecting robots.txt. No new date or new wording has been announced. Business page owners are under the current terms for now, but should watch for a revised version that could reach their websites.