Sanef warns Meta could use SA news to train AI without paying publishers
The warning comes amid growing global resistance to the Facebook owner's plans.
South African editors have expressed alarm over Meta's updated commercial terms, warning the tech giant could utilize journalism from local news organizations to build its artificial intelligence products without obtaining consent, credit, or payment. This warning follows growing resistance from publishers worldwide, with courts in Brazil and Norway intervening as media organizations contest what critics describe as an unprecedented encroachment on news content.
The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) stated that Meta's proposed terms would permit the company to scrape and gather content from websites connected to businesses utilizing Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, encompassing most news outlets. Despite Meta postponing the implementation until November 20 and committing to discussions with publishers, SANEF contends that the revised language still permits journalism to be employed in the creation of generative AI products.
"Even on a narrow reading, it would permit Meta's AI services to leverage news journalism shared through its platforms, as it is published, to generate answers without acknowledgment or compensation," SANEF noted. The concerns have prompted an international reaction. The World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) urged Meta to suspend the terms for news publishers and negotiate a just framework for utilizing journalism.
Meanwhile, media entities in Norway obtained a court order temporarily halting the policy, while a Brazilian court barred Meta from amassing journalism to train AI systems without authorization. SANEF described the terms as a "warning shot" for South African publishers, asserting they illustrate how near a dominant technology platform has come to utilizing publishers' work as a condition of engaging in business.
SANEF has urged Meta to retract the crawling provision for South African publishers, urged the Competition Commission to closely monitor the rollout of the terms, and reiterated calls for government to permit publishers to negotiate collectively with major technology and AI companies. "Urgent global normative principles on publisher consent, enforceable opt-outs, and fair terms for the use of journalism are urgently needed," SANEF emphasized.
Written by urgent.news from The Citizen's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
