Meta removes language that raised scraping and AI training concerns
- ID
- 36692
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 18 Oct 2026, 5:31 AM
- Fetched
- 18 Oct 2026, 5:34 AM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/17/meta-removes-language-that-raised-scraping-and-ai-training-concerns/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 5.5
- Created
- 18 Oct 2026, 5:35 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersfounders
What happened
Meta updated its commercial terms of use to state it could "use any content from [a business account's] domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of" Meta products and services — language legal experts quoted by Nieman Lab called a "remarkable provision" that could allow scraping any publisher's site with a Meta business account and using it for AI training. Meta said the update did not change how it crawls the web, and after The Verge reported on the backlash, the company removed the provision, saying the "crawling terms we consolidated only applied to our ads and business products" and that it "does not change how Meta uses web crawlers." The article notes Meta defeated a high-profile copyright infringement lawsuit last year while other cases against AI companies, including Meta, continue.
Why it matters
If your startup runs Meta ads or holds a Business account and also publishes a website, that consolidated clause would have covered your own domains and URLs — and it was removed only after press coverage, not before. Concrete action: pull your current Meta Business terms and check whether the scraping/training language is gone in your own account's version, and diff platform ToS against your own site terms and robots.txt policy before your next campaign cycle rather than assuming ad terms stay confined to ads.
Discussion angle
Was the removed clause a drafting accident or a test balloon — and what would you actually do differently if a platform's ad terms quietly granted training rights over your domain?