The key facts
- Meta added a clause to its commercial terms granting the right to use content from business account domains for AI training
- Lawyers interviewed by Nieman Lab called the wording an 'outstanding provision'
- After criticism, Meta removed the clause, stating it applied only to advertising and business products
Controversial wording in Meta's terms
Meta recently updated its commercial terms of use, adding a provision stating that the company may 'use any content from the domains, web pages, or URLs of a business account to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of' Meta's products and services.
Lawyers' reaction
In the view of legal experts interviewed by Nieman Lab, this looked like an 'outstanding provision' that could have given Meta permission to collect data from the website of any publisher with a Meta business account and use that content to train the company's AI models. It is noted that last year Meta won a high-profile lawsuit over alleged copyright infringement, but other cases against AI companies, including Meta, are ongoing.
Meta's position and removal of the clause
A Meta representative insisted that the updated terms did not reflect changes in how the company scans the web. As The Verge reports, the provision was subsequently removed. Meta stated: 'We heard you and want to clarify: the consolidated terms about scanning applied only to our advertising and business products, and we have clarified this in the terms themselves. This does not change how Meta uses web crawlers.'
