META REMOVES WEBSITE CONTENT CLAUSE FROM COMMERCIAL TERMS

Meta has removed wording from its commercial terms that said it could use content from the websites of businesses with Meta accounts to develop its products and services. The clause covered material on those businesses’ domains, web pages and URLs, including content Meta could use to “research” and “train” its products. The change followed objections that the wording could permit Meta to collect material from news websites for artificial intelligence training. Meta said the revised terms clarify how the clause applied to its ads and business products.

James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and information law at Cornell, interpreted the earlier wording as an attempt to give Meta permission to use website content for AI training without payment. He also said it appeared to override blocking instructions that website owners place in robots.txt files. Other legal experts said the provision could cover the website of any publisher with a Meta business account. Meta had recently added the clause to its commercial terms before removing it.

Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts said: “We’ve heard you and want to clarify: the crawling terms we consolidated only applied to our ads and business products, and we’ve clarified that in the terms themselves.” Roberts said the revision does not change how Meta uses web crawlers and that content owners can use robots.txt to signal their preferences. Meta vice president of communications Andy Stone had also rejected suggestions that the clause changed the company’s crawling practices. Meta won a copyright infringement lawsuit last year, while other cases against AI companies, including Meta, continue.