Meta pauses new business terms after media firms protest data scraping rules

Meta has delayed the introduction of new terms for its business accounts following a wave of complaints from media companies and web advocates. The delay comes after critics argued the updated rules would grant the social media giant broad rights to scrape data from commercial sites. This move follows a temporary court order in Norway that suspended the terms on October 28.

The original schedule called for the new rules to take effect on October 30. Under these terms, Meta would be authorized to use automated software, including web scrapers and bots, to index, cache, analyze, collect, retrieve, or crawl domains, web pages, or URLs associated with a business account. The company stated that the changes apply to its ads and business products, not general news sites, and that its use of web crawlers remains unchanged.

Critics countered that the update would apply to all business clients regardless of opposition. They argued that Meta would extract content without payment and could use it to build competing products, such as AI services. A report by the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University noted that as written, the terms could be used to argue that Meta can scrape content from news sites to train its AI products. Three legal experts reviewed the terms for the Lab at its request.

Lene Eltvik Vindfeld, chair of the board for the Norwegian Media Businesses’ Association, said the court agreed that Meta holds a dominant position in the relevant market and that the new terms are unreasonable. The association’s member newspapers account for approximately 97% of Norwegian newspaper circulation. The Norwegian court granted the temporary injunction at the request of 180 media companies pending a full assessment of the terms' legality.

In the United Kingdom, the Competition and Markets Authority announced on October 30 that it is starting its own investigation into the conditions. The authority expressed concern that requiring news publishers and other content businesses to accept these terms could amount to an unlawful imposition of unfair trading conditions. The CMA is examining whether the rules constitute an anti-competitive landgrab.

Maria A. Pallante, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, said in a statement that Meta is implicitly acknowledging that permission is required for them to use creative works to develop and improve their products. She argued that the company is abusing its dominant market power by compelling such consent from any commercial user who connects to its platforms. Pallante called on Meta to drop the new terms.

Meta spokesman Andy Stone wrote on X on October 16 that the update is designed to ensure the company can pull accurate information about products for sale on third-party websites when making on-platform ad and content recommendations. He clarified that the change is not about scraping news sites. Stone noted that regular users of Meta’s platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, can already have their public posts scraped to train AI models.

Meta removed the word “train” from the updated terms after the Nieman Lab report was published. On October 29, the company said it was listening to feedback and that its existing terms remain in place for now. Stone posted on X that the company does not plan to make policy changes without a full consultation with industry groups and leaders.

Randi S. Øgrey, CEO of the Norwegian MBL, said the postponement was insufficient. She stated that when the financial foundations of independent news media are weakened, media diversity and the democratic public sphere are at stake. Norwegian media has three demands: Meta should respect publishers’ reservations against scraping, use journalism in AI products only after a separate voluntary agreement with payment, and not marginalize publishers who do not sign the new terms.

Sara Simonini, a spokesperson for the European Commission, confirmed that the executive body had discussed the proposed new terms with Meta. She welcomed the postponement of their entry into force. Simonini said the commission is committed to ensuring that Meta’s practices comply with EU law, which prohibits a company from abusing its dominant market position. The EU executive also asked unspecified providers of AI models to give details about their training material in line with the EU’s new AI Act.