Meta Delays Controversial Business Terms Amid Scraping Concerns
Technology company Meta has moved the start date of its new commercial terms from October 30 to November 20. Publishers and other businesses worry the terms would let it collect their content with automated tools.
Meta, the technology company behind Facebook and Instagram, has postponed the effective date of its updated commercial terms of use. They were due to take effect on October 30, but the new date is November 20. A company spokesperson told Reuters and Fast Company about the change, which also covers the self-serve ad terms.
According to Meta, the extra time is needed to explain to partners and stakeholders what is changing and what is not.
What prompted the objections
Meta had earlier shared planned changes that would give it the right to use web scrapers and automated tools to access, index, cache, analyze and collect the domains, web pages and URLs linked to business accounts, along with their content. The company could use that content to provide, develop and improve its products, services and features.
After publishers and other businesses raised concerns, Meta removed the reference to AI training. Even so, potentially affected organizations have since filed complaints with antitrust authorities.
The News Media Alliance, which represents thousands of news media organizations in the United States and Canada, sent the company an open letter demanding that it withdraw the revised terms before October 30. The group said news publishers would be forced to supply their journalism to help build products that could compete with them for readers and advertisers, without compensation.
Meta's commitments
The company said it would explain to partners how it uses its web crawlers and make clear that content owners and publishers can use robots.txt. This plain text file lets owners signal their preferences to crawlers and AI bots and block them from indexing content.
However, Reuters has previously reported that the crawlers of several AI companies regularly ignore robots.txt instructions.
