Meta delays new business terms after publisher pushback over AI scraping

Meta is delaying the enforcement of new business terms after publishers raised concerns that they could let the company scrape news sites for AI training.

The terms were originally due to take effect on October 30. Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts told The Verge they will now take effect on November 20, giving the company more time to explain “what’s changing and what’s not” to its partners and stakeholders.

The terms appeared to give Meta permission to scrape news sites that use its platforms and use the material to train AI. Meta later removed language referring to product “training,” but legal experts argued that the change did not rule out that possibility.

On Thursday, the News/Media Alliance sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding changes, warning the terms could cause “severe harm” to publishers. Digital advertisers and publishers in the European Union and the UK also urged regulators to make Meta halt the terms.

Roberts said the delay would give Meta time to explain how it uses web crawlers and that content owners can still use robots.txt to signal their preferences about whether crawlers may access their sites.