Meta removes language that may have allowed it to scrape news sites
Meta removed terms language critics said let it scrape news sites to train AI.
After backlash, Meta removed commercial-terms language that legal experts said could let it use content from websites, including news sites, to train AI and potentially supersede robots.txt. The deleted clause said Meta may use content from covered domains to develop, research, and train its products. Spokesperson Daniel Roberts said the consolidated crawling terms applied only to ads and business products, do not change how Meta’s web crawlers work, and do not create rights that override robots.txt.
- Meta deleted commercial-terms language critics read as a right to train AI on scraped sites.
- Cornell professor James Grimmelmann and Neiman Lab said it could override robots.txt.
- Meta says crawler behavior is unchanged and robots.txt preferences still apply.
- The company says the wording covered only ads and business products.
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From the original article
2 min read at theverge.com
After backlash, Meta is updating its terms again to remove language that suggested it could scrape content from sites, including news sites, to train its AI. Specifically, the following language no longer appears on the commercial terms page: …
By Terrence O’Brien · theverge.com
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