Meta's revised terms may still let it scrape news sites, legal experts say
Whether robots.txt still binds Meta is now the open question, and the new terms take effect October 30th.
Meta revised the business terms for its accounts after publishers objected to wording that suggested it could freely train its AI models on news websites. Legal experts say the edits leave room for that: the phrase tying content to a business's products or services could still let Meta crawl entire sites, and the word 'develop' may cover training. Meta says the terms do not concern scraping news sites and do not override robots.txt preferences, which content owners can still use to signal what crawlers may access. The new terms take effect October 30th, so the dispute over whether robots.txt still binds Meta remains open.
Why it matters
Publishers who objected to Meta's original wording have not been given a clear answer. Legal experts argue the edits leave room for crawling entire sites and possibly for AI training, while Meta maintains the terms do not override the robots.txt signals site owners already use. Until that disagreement is settled, the practical protection for news publishers depends on how Meta reads its own terms and whether those signals are honored.
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Sources
- The Verge