Meta's new terms let it crawl business websites for AI

What the clause says

Under the new text, business users authorise Meta to use automated software such as scrapers and bots, and to create test credentials, to access the domains, pages and URLs associated with their products or services and periodically pull updates. Meta may use that content to provide, develop, improve, research and train its products (Nieman Lab). Elsewhere, Meta's terms list “AI at Meta” among those products.

Business users include anyone running ads, managing a Page or a Group for business, using a product catalogue, Business Suite or Ads Manager (The Register). There is no opt-out: the update says users who don't agree must stop using Meta's products for business purposes.

What the lawyers say

Media lawyer Matt Topic called it a remarkable provision to bury in the terms, given that the material would likely cost many millions in a licensing market. He said it is unclear a court would enforce it, but publishers should assume it would be. Cornell's James Grimmelmann said the test-credentials language would technically let Meta “sign up as a fake user” to get past registration walls.

A Meta spokesperson told Nieman Lab the crawling language was previously scattered across different terms and the update consolidates it, that it won't change how Meta crawls publishers, and that robots.txt still controls access. Santa Clara University's Eric Goldman told The Register the language does not expressly say Meta will respect robots.txt.

Danielle Coffey, president of the News/Media Alliance, called the terms “outrageous and probably illegal” and a clear abuse of Meta's market power (The Register).

What businesses can do

The terms are on Meta's site (Meta). Businesses that don't want their site in Meta's AI training should check their robots.txt rules for Meta's crawlers. Meta says that still works; Goldman notes the contract does not guarantee it, and the question may end up in court.