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In Brief

Posted:

2:31 PM PDT · October 17, 2026

Meta has recently revised its commercial terms of use. The update stated that the company could utilize any content from a business account's domains, web pages, or URLs to support, enhance, research, train, and ensure the reliability of its products and services.

Legal specialists consulted by Nieman Lab described this as a notable clause that might authorize Meta to harvest content from any publisher's site linked to a Meta business account for training its AI systems. Although Meta prevailed in a prominent copyright lawsuit last year, additional legal actions against AI firms, including Meta, persist.

Nevertheless, a Meta representative maintained that the term updates did not signify an alteration in Meta's web crawling methods. The Verge has now reported that this specific provision has been eliminated.

The company issued a statement: "We have listened to feedback and wish to clarify that the consolidated crawling terms applied solely to our ads and business products, and we have made this clear in the terms. This does not modify how Meta employs web crawlers."

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