Meta's New Commercial Terms Raise Fears Over Free AI Training on Publisher Content

Legal experts are warning that Meta will soon update its commercial terms to require business accounts to permit AI training on their linked website content, not just their social media posts.

The update takes effect October 30 and offers no opt-out. Businesses that refuse are told to stop using Meta's services.

According to Nieman Lab, the change affects all business accounts but is especially significant for news publishers, who might otherwise charge Meta millions in licensing fees for ongoing access to their articles for AI training. News organizations are already contesting OpenAI over whether such training without licensing qualifies as fair use, and Meta's terms appear to grant sweeping permissions regardless of how courts rule.

The updated language authorizes Meta to use automated software - scrapers, bots, robots, spiders, crawlers and user agents - to access, index, cache, analyze, collect, retrieve or crawl domains, web pages or URLs tied to a business's products or services, and to pull periodic updates. Meta may use any content from those sources to provide, develop, improve, research, train and maintain its products, services and features.

The terms never mention AI directly; the implication comes from a single use of the word "train" alongside references to automated scraping and crawling.