Meta pauses commercial terms update after AI training backlash

Meta pauses terms update

Meta has indefinitely delayed planned changes to its commercial terms for Meta Business account users after opposition over how the policy could affect AI training on content linked from Facebook. The move keeps existing terms in place while the company faces legal, regulatory, and industry scrutiny in multiple markets.

“We’re pausing the changes as we continue to engage with stakeholders and take our time to get this right. In the meantime, our existing terms remain in effect,” a Meta spokesperson told Reuters.

Legal and regulatory pressure

The update was initially set to take effect on October 30. Meta pushed the date to November 20 amid pushback from Facebook users, courts, and regulators around the world. Courts in Brazil and Norway issued preliminary injunctions blocking the terms after organizations in those countries filed lawsuits.

The United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority opened a formal investigation into whether Meta was exploiting a dominant position to seize valuable AI training data.

In the United States, Sens. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) sent letters asking Mark Zuckerberg to withdraw the terms.

Publisher concerns

Legal experts warned that the vague language could allow Meta to ignore scraping preferences specified in robots.txt files and exhaustively crawl vast amounts of off-Facebook content for AI training. The terms required businesses to allow Meta to crawl any linked external sites and to create test credentials so Meta’s bots could bypass paywalls.

Meta has insisted that it would never use its terms of service to skirt robots.txt. In an update to business page owners, the company offered a reminder that “our crawling practices remain unchanged, and content owners can continue to signal their crawling preferences using robots.txt.”

Critics remained concerned because the revised terms did not include specific language about respecting robots.txt preferences. Theo Bamber, chief executive of the UK’s News Media Association, said removing the word “train” from the terms did little to reassure publishers, since “develop” posed the same threat.

Why it matters

The pause leaves existing terms in effect and means Meta will not require business account users to allow AI training on linked external content for now. The company said it will continue consultations with stakeholders, and the outcome could affect how publishers and platforms negotiate AI data licensing going forward.

Sources

• arstechnica.com: “Does Meta think we can’t read?” Meta abandons sketchy commercial terms update. - Ars Technica
• tradersunion.com: Meta pauses commercial terms update after AI training backlash

This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.