Meta has postponed the implementation of its controversial new commercial terms from October 30 to November 20, following backlash from publishers and businesses over data scraping provisions. The original terms would have granted Meta the right to use web scrapers and automated tools to access, index, cache, analyze, collect, and crawl domains, web pages, or URLs associated with business accounts, including using content to develop and train Meta products. After criticism, Meta removed explicit references to AI training, but concerns persisted.
The News Media Alliance, representing thousands of news organizations in the U.S. and Canada, sent an open letter demanding withdrawal of the terms, arguing publishers would be forced to provide valuable journalism without compensation to support products competing for readers and advertisers. Potentially affected entities have filed complaints with antitrust authorities. Meta stated it will clarify how its web crawlers operate and confirm that content owners can use robots.txt to signal preferences to crawlers and AI bots.
However, Reuters previously reported that multiple AI companies' crawlers regularly ignore robots.txt instructions, raising doubts about the effectiveness of this opt-out mechanism.
Source: Engadget · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing