Artificial Intelligence

Meta Updates Terms, but AI Scraping Concerns Remain

Meta has removed explicit training language from its updated business terms following publisher backlash, but legal professionals say loopholes remain.

Radwan AbdulhadiEditor and technology writer

Published: October 23, 2026 · Updated: October 23, 2026 · 3 min read

Meta Updates Terms, but AI Scraping Concerns Remain — Image: The Verge

Meta Alters Business Terms Following Backlash

Meta has tweaked its business terms to remove language suggesting that it could freely train its AI models on news sites, like The Verge — but legal experts say these changes aren’t enough to address their concerns. Initially, Meta’s new terms for business accounts appeared to give the company permission to train its AI on news sites.

The terms, which go into effect October 30th, previously stated that Meta may use any content from websites associated with a business account to develop, research, and train Meta's products. This triggered a fierce backlash across the publishing industry.

Legal Experts Question the Revised Wording

According to James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and information law at Cornell Law School, who tells Nieman Lab about the update, the changes fail to resolve fundamental issues. "This does nothing to restrict the 'associated with your products or services' language that would let Meta scrape entire sites," Grimmelmann noted.

Matt Topic, a media and intellectual property attorney at Loevy & Loevy, also told Nieman Lab that the revised text remains problematic. Topic explained that the revised version still allows Meta to use scraped content to develop any business product, a broad phrase that likely encompasses AI development and training.

Potential Impact on Publisher Blocking Instructions

When the initial commercial terms were revealed, legal analysts warned that the language could allow Meta to argue its commercial terms supersede other blocking instructions, such as the robots.txt file that has historically told search engines and web crawlers what they are allowed to crawl.

While Meta removed the explicit reference to training products with scraped content, critics argue that the remaining phrasing is ambiguous enough to leave the door open for continued data collection practices under the guise of product development.

Meta's Defense and Response

Meta has consistently maintained that its new terms are not designed to scrape news content for free or bypass publisher controls. In a statement to The Verge, Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts reiterated that content owners can use robots.txt to signal their preferences.

Roberts added that the update is not about scraping news sites, and that these updates do not grant the company new rights that supersede publisher preferences regarding web crawling and content indexing.