“Does Meta think we can’t read?” Meta abandons sketchy commercial terms update.
Meta won't force Facebook page owners to allow AI training on linked content.
Meta has halted plans to modify its commercial terms and require Meta Business account users to permit extensive AI training on external websites linked on Facebook, following intense backlash and an unsuccessful attempt to quell the issue. The company is taking its time to engage with stakeholders and ensure the changes are made correctly, according to a Meta spokesperson speaking to Reuters.
Legal experts have cautioned that the vague language in the proposed terms could allow Meta to disregard scraping preferences specified in robots.txt files and extensively crawl off-Facebook content for AI training. With virtually every news publisher having a Facebook page, the potential impact could be significant, as the changes could have avoided millions in licensing fees.
Written by urgent.news from Ars Technica's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
