Meta's Updated Commercial Terms Could Let It Train AI on News Sites Without Paying Licensing Fees

Meta Introduces Controversial Commercial Terms of Service Update

Meta is implementing updated terms of service for business accounts that take effect on October 30, sparking widespread concern among news publishers and legal experts. The updated terms of service grant Meta permission to use automated software including web scrapers, bots, and crawlers to access domains and URLs associated with business accounts on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger1

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. The company claims it is simply "streamlining" its commercial terms by consolidating language previously scattered across different policies1

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Broad Permissions for AI Training on External Content

The new terms state that Meta can "use any content from such domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of" Meta's products and services3

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. While the word "AI" doesn't appear explicitly, legal experts interpret the reference to "train" alongside mentions of automated scraping as clear indication of AI training purposes1

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. This affects virtually every news organization with Meta business accounts, potentially allowing Meta to train AI on news sites without securing licensing agreements that could cost millions in AI licensing fees1

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No Opt-Out Option for Business Accounts

Meta's new terms offer no opt-out mechanism for businesses. Instead, the company states that businesses disagreeing with the updated terms "may stop all access or use of our Products for business or commercial purposes"3

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. This puts news publishers in a difficult position, forcing them to choose between maintaining their social media presence or protecting their content from being used to train AI models. Jason Kint, who leads a trade group for digital media publishers, warned that Meta's new terms "reach outside its walled gardens to any websites 'associated with your products'"3

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Fresh Language Raises Paywall Concerns

Comparison of Meta's current and updated commercial terms reveals significant new language that wasn't present in previous policies. The updated terms introduce mentions of "test credentials" that legal experts warn could allow Meta to bypass paywalls and automate data scraping of protected content1

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. This language appears only in Meta's Self-Service Ads Terms introduced this month and wasn't found in previous Product Catalog Terms or Ad Creative Generative AI Terms1

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. Matt Topic, a media and intellectual property attorney at Loevy & Loevy, called this "a remarkable provision to bury in terms of service, given that this would give Meta access to material that would likely cost many millions of dollars in a licensing market"1

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Legal Experts Question Enforceability and Fair Use Implications

Three legal experts told Nieman Lab that while it's unclear if courts would enforce Meta's new terms, they could be "used to argue that Meta can scrape content from news sites and use that content to train the company's AI products"1

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. James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and information law at Cornell Law School, warned that Meta could "train AI on any content from their sites" and possibly "deploy some of that content, even in competition with the publishers themselves" on Meta platforms1

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. This comes as news organizations battle OpenAI over whether AI training without licensing constitutes fair use, and Meta's terms could grant sweeping permissions regardless of how courts rule1

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Meta's Response and Robots.txt Assurances

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone pushed back against concerns, stating "This is false. There's no change to how Meta uses web crawlers" and that automated software will continue respecting robots.txt files that prohibit scraping3

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. Meta told Nieman Lab it has no plans to use the terms as legal basis to ignore robots.txt instructions and still allows news publishers to opt out of scraping1

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. However, media outlets question whether Meta's stance might change if courts affirm that AI training is fair use, potentially allowing the company to legally override robots.txt instructions through these commercial terms1

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Pay-to-Post Model Compounds Publisher Concerns

Adding to publisher frustration, Meta recently began charging users through its Meta One subscription to post links on its platforms1

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. This creates a scenario where Meta first charges news publishers for sharing links, then uses that cash-for-links program to gain permission to scrape those same links to train AI models. As Nieman Lab noted, "Meta has begun charging users to post links to the same content that it will be permitted to crawl for free"2

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. Theo Bamber, CEO of a UK news media trade group, called the situation "absolutely nuts," stating that "this detail, buried in a pile of other stuff, will see Meta scraping data worth millions, or billions, in a licensing market"3

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