Meta removed the word 'train' from its commercial terms of service after facing backlash over potential AI data scraping concerns. The revised terms, set to take effect on October 30, no longer allow Meta to use content from business pages to 'train' AI models, a change aimed at addressing legal and ethical concerns raised by media experts.
Legal experts warned that the previous terms gave Meta broad permission to scrape websites linked on business pages, potentially allowing the company to avoid millions in licensing fees from news organizations. The updated terms now restrict Meta's use of content to 'periodically pull updates' for advertising and business products, rather than for AI training.
The revised terms are built on Meta's broader AI policy framework and target business users who manage company pages. The changes are intended to clarify how Meta uses web crawlers, though experts argue the language remains too broad to fully protect content creators.
"We’ve heard you and want to clarify: the crawling terms we consolidated only applied to our ads and business products, and we’ve clarified that in the terms themselves," said a Meta spokesperson. The statement emphasized that the changes do not alter how Meta uses web crawlers, and that content owners can use robots.txt to signal their preferences.
The announcement follows a wave of criticism from media experts and industry leaders, who argued that the previous terms gave Meta too much power over content creators. The revised terms are seen as a partial response to these concerns, but many experts believe they fall short of providing adequate protection.
Meta did not address whether it would respect scraping instructions in robots.txt files, and the open question remains about how the company will enforce its new terms. The changes are set to take effect on October 30, with the full impact yet to be determined.
Source: arstechnica
