Meta removes language that may have allowed it to scrape news sites
After backlash, Meta is updating its terms again to remove language that suggested it could scrape content from sites, including news sites, to train its AI. Specifically, the following language no longer appears on the commercial terms page: … Meta may use any content from such domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, […]
A recent change to Meta's terms of service has removed language that experts believe could have allowed the company to scrape content from news websites for use in training its artificial intelligence. This move comes after criticism from various sources, including Neiman Lab and Cornell professor James Grimmelmann, who interpreted the original wording as granting Meta the right to utilize scraped content without constraints.
Meta's vice president of communications, Andy Stone, and spokesperson Daniel Roberts have maintained that there has been no alteration to the company's web crawling practices, despite the removal of the disputed language. They emphasized that the altered terms specifically pertain to their advertising and business products, and do not impact their methods for using web crawlers.
Meta has clarified that the updated terms maintain the same principles regarding web crawling, asserting that owners of content can still use robots.txt to express their preferences. The company's statement assures that these modifications do not confer any new rights that could override such preferences.
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