Meta Strips Controversial Language From AI Training Terms
Facing intense scrutiny over how it harvests data for artificial intelligence, Meta has deleted specific clauses from its commercial terms that implied a right to scrape news websites. The move follows widespread criticism from legal scholars and media observers who argued the language effectively bypassed standard web-blocking protocols.
The removed passage previously asserted that Meta could utilize content from any URL to develop, train, and maintain its products. Critics, including Cornell digital law professor James Grimmelmann, warned that this phrasing appeared to override robots.txt instructions, which publishers use to prevent automated crawlers from indexing their work.
Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts told The Verge that the company heard the public feedback and sought to clarify the scope of its crawling activities. He maintained that the consolidated terms were intended only for ads and business products, rather than general AI training. Despite the deletion of the contentious text, Meta insists its actual data-collection practices remain unchanged and that site owners retain the ability to restrict access through standard technical signals.
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