Meta removes an ambiguous crawling clause

Meta has removed a clause from its commercial terms that raised concerns about scraping and AI training. The company claims that this text only pertained to its advertising and commercial products and does not imply any changes in the use of its web crawlers.

Clause Removed and Framing by Meta

The contentious provision has been removed from the commercial terms. Meta clarifies that the consolidated crawling terms applied solely to its advertising and commercial products and states that it has added this clarification to the terms. The company adds that this adjustment does not result in any change in how its web crawlers are used. A spokesperson had already asserted that the update did not alter how Meta explores the web.

What the Text Said and Expert Interpretations

The update to the commercial terms allowed the use of any content from domains, web pages, or URLs associated with a business account to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of Meta's products and services. Legal experts viewed this as a notable provision that could enable Meta to scrape the site of any publisher with a business account and exploit this content to train its AI models. This wording fueled concerns surrounding scraping and AI training.

A Still-Evolving Judicial Context

Meta won a highly publicized lawsuit last year related to an allegation of copyright infringement. Meanwhile, other proceedings targeting AI companies, including Meta, are ongoing.