Meta postpones disputed business terms until November 20
Meta moved its new business terms from October 30 to November 20 as publishers continued challenging provisions on crawling news websites. The company says it needs more time to describe the changes. Training language was removed earlier, but legal experts argue that the revision does not fully exclude training uses. Meta maintains that site owners can signal crawling preferences through robots.txt.
Artificial Intelligence··Midday
The new terms move back by three weeks
Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, postponed its new business terms from October 30 to November 20. The revised timetable adds three weeks as publishers continue challenging provisions on crawling news websites.[1], [2]
Company spokesperson Daniel Roberts said Meta would use the extra time to describe the changes to partners and stakeholders. The terms cover businesses using Meta tools such as advertising, Facebook Pages and Instagram business accounts. Using those tools constitutes acceptance of the terms. Meta has not announced that it is withdrawing them altogether.[1]
Removing training language did not end the dispute
The dispute concerns how content collected from publishers using Meta platforms relates to AI training. Meta previously removed language about training its products. Legal experts nevertheless argue that the edit does not fully exclude using content for training. The postponement follows that earlier wording change, while publishers continue challenging the scope of the terms.[1]
Publishers seek revisions as Meta points to crawling preferences
The News/Media Alliance, a publishers’ association, wrote to Mark Zuckerberg seeking revisions and arguing that the approach could seriously harm publishers. Publishers and digital advertisers in the European Union and United Kingdom also asked regulators to halt the terms. Roberts said content owners could continue signalling their crawling preferences through robots.txt, a file containing technical instructions telling automated web crawlers whether they may access a site.[1]
