Meta has updated its commercial terms of service to remove specific language that previously allowed the company to scrape content from external websites. The deleted clause stated that Meta could use data from domains and URLs to develop, train, and maintain its products and services.
Critics, including legal experts and industry analysts, interpreted the original phrasing as an attempt by Meta to bypass robots.txt instructions and scrape news sites for AI training purposes without compensation. The company faced significant backlash following these interpretations.
Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts and vice president of communications Andy Stone denied that the terms granted new scraping rights. According to the company, the previous language was intended only for ads and business products, and the update serves to clarify this scope.
The company emphasized that its approach to web crawling remains unchanged. Meta confirmed that website owners retain the ability to use robots.txt files to manage how their content is accessed, and these settings continue to be respected by the company's crawlers.
