Meta recently removed a clause from its commercial terms of use that raised concerns about the company scraping content from business accounts to train its AI models, according to techcrunch.com. The clause had stated Meta could use content from any business account’s domains, web pages, or URLs to develop and improve its products and services. This update occurred after legal experts highlighted the provision’s potential to permit broad data scraping.
The original language in Meta’s terms suggested the company could crawl websites of publishers with Meta business accounts and use their content for AI training. Meta had previously defeated a major copyright infringement lawsuit but still faces ongoing legal challenges related to AI. A Meta spokesperson clarified that the updated terms did not represent a change in how Meta crawls the web. Following public feedback, Meta removed the contentious provision and stated the crawling terms only applied to ads and business products.
This change matters as it addresses growing concerns over AI companies’ use of web data without explicit permission. Meta’s initial wording was seen as unusually broad, potentially allowing the company to scrape and use content from numerous publishers. The move to remove the clause aligns with increasing scrutiny of AI training data practices, especially after high-profile lawsuits involving copyright and data rights. Meta’s clarification aims to reassure publishers and users about its data usage policies.
Meta’s statement confirmed the removal of the language and emphasized that the change does not affect its web crawling practices. The company said the clarified terms now explicitly apply only to ads and business products. This update was reported on October 17, 2026, by techcrunch.com, marking a notable adjustment in Meta’s approach to AI training data transparency.