Key facts
- Meta removed a clause from its terms of use that could have allowed AI training on publisher content.
- The company stated the removed clause was intended only for ads and business products.
- Meta insisted its web crawling practices have not changed.
Meta recently updated its commercial terms of use, including a provision that stated the company could use content from business accounts to "provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of" Meta products and services. Legal experts interpreted this as a potential permission for Meta to scrape publisher websites and use the content for AI model training. However, a Meta spokesperson maintained that the update did not alter the company's web crawling practices. Subsequently, The Verge reported that Meta has removed the contentious provision, with the company clarifying that the terms were intended solely for its ads and business products and did not represent a change in its broader web crawling activities.