Meta removes “train” from commercial terms, but experts say scraping may still occur

Meta removed language from its business-account terms saying it could use website content to “develop, research” and “train” its products. The change, which takes effect October 30, followed criticism from the publishing industry, but experts told The Verge that the phrase “develop any business product” remains broad enough to include AI training and does not block site scraping. James Grimmelmann told Nieman Lab that the terms could still allow Meta to scrape entire sites.

Meta told The Verge that content owners can use robots.txt files to signal their preferences and that the update does not create new rights superseding those preferences. According to Ars Technica, publishing groups in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States called for regulators to intervene; the European Publishers Council said publishers should decide how their journalism is used and negotiate fair payment.