From The Verge · Terrence O'Brien · · 1m 10s
Meta removes scraping language from terms
Meta deletes controversial language from its commercial terms that experts said allowed it to scrape news sites to train AI without permission.
In brief
Meta deletes controversial language from its commercial terms that experts said allowed it to scrape news sites to train AI without permission. Meta removed language from its terms that experts interpreted as permission to scrape news sites for AI training, after public backlash. Originally reported by The Verge.
Experts saw scraping rights
Meta's commercial terms contained language that Neiman Lab and Cornell professor James Grimmelmann interpreted as permission to scrape news sites for AI training without paying.
“Meta may use any content from such domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of, the Meta Company Products”
Meta denies the interpretation
Meta's Andy Stone and Daniel Roberts said there is no change to how Meta uses web crawlers and the language only applied to ads and business products, not AI.
“There is no change to how Meta uses web crawlers; any suggestion to the contrary is false.”
Meta removes the language
After backlash, Meta deleted the controversial language from its terms. Daniel Roberts said the updates clarify that crawling terms only applied to ads and business products.
“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.”
Content owners retain control
Meta confirmed that content owners can still use robots.txt to signal their preferences about web crawling, and the updates do not give Meta new rights that override those preferences.
“As always, content owners can use robots.txt to signal their preferences.”
What it means
Meta removed language from its terms that experts interpreted as permission to scrape news sites for AI training, after public backlash.
