Meta removes commercial use terms that raised AI training and data scraping concerns
Meta has deleted controversial wording in its commercial use terms that raised concerns that websites could be used for AI training and data scraping.
With an update to its commercial use terms, Meta removed controversial language stating that content on business accounts' domain names and web pages could be used to develop company products and for AI training.
Meta recently updated its commercial use terms to include wording stating that content on business accounts' domain names and web pages could be used for the development and research of company products and services, and for training AI models.
Legal experts interviewed by Nieman Lab evaluated this situation as a striking regulation that Meta might have permission to scrape the website of any publisher with a business account and use the obtained content to train AI models.
A Meta spokesperson argued that the updated terms did not indicate a change in the company's web scraping methods. As reported by The Verge, this controversial provision was subsequently removed from the text entirely.
Meta stated that the web scraping terms apply only to advertising and business products, and do not create any changes in how web crawlers are used.