Facing criticism from legal experts and publishers, Meta has removed the word "train" from the commercial terms of service that take effect October 30. The original wording allowed Meta to use "any content" from websites linked on business pages to "train" Meta products. The revised version says Meta may "periodically pull updates" from those sites to "provide, develop, improve, research, and maintain" advertising and business products, while dropping the reference to "any content."
Meta says the change is only a clarification and that it does not alter how the company uses web crawlers. A spokesperson said content owners can still use robots.txt to signal preferences, and that the updates do not give Meta new rights to override those signals. However, experts quoted by Nieman Lab were unconvinced. Cornell law professor James Grimmelmann said the "develop…advertising and business products" language is "still broad enough to drive a truck through," and attorney Matt Topic argued that "develop" is broad enough to include "train." University of Wisconsin law professor Benjamin Sobel noted that robots.txt preferences are not legally enforceable unless the terms promise to honor them, which the revised terms do not explicitly do.
The backlash is not limited to legal analysis. Theo Bamber of the UK News Media Association called the move a "shameless land grab," and the European Publishers Council has asked the European Commission to intervene. In the US, News/Media Alliance president and CEO Danielle Coffey called the terms "outrageous and probably illegal," urging regulators to prevent the policy from taking effect on October 30.