Meta has removed the word "train" from its commercial terms of service following widespread backlash over its AI policies, but experts argue the change does little to address core concerns. University of Wisconsin law professor Benjamin Sobel suggested Meta should add language agreeing to respect robots.txt files, which currently serve as voluntary guidelines. Since compliance with robots.txt is not legally enforceable, Meta could still scrape sites that attempt to block access through these files, according to legal experts.
The backlash is global, with news organizations urging regulators to intervene. Theo Bamber, CEO of the UK News Media Association, criticized Meta's actions as a "shameless land grab" and called on UK regulators to protect British creators and businesses. The European Publishers Council has also appealed to the European Commission, with executive director Angela Mills Wad stating that publishers must retain control over how their journalism is used and be fairly compensated.
In the US, Danielle Coffey, president and CEO of the News/Media Alliance, condemned the terms as "outrageous and probably illegal." She warned that Meta's policy of withholding audience access unless businesses permit content scraping represents an abuse of market power. Coffey urged regulators to block implementation of the terms by October 30.
Source: Ars Technica · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing