Meta Considers Postponing Controversial New Business Terms Amid Rising Backlash
Meta is encountering mounting criticism over its revised business terms, which may lead the company to reconsider their rollout. They are planning a complete consultation with publishers, although they have yet to modify the disputed terms. These terms grant Meta permission to access and extract data from the websites of businesses that utilize Facebook.
The new terms were initially set to be implemented on October 30 but were postponed to November 20 due to public concern. Recently, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone indicated that the enforcement could be delayed again, despite the company continuing to reference November 20 on its website. Stone stated, “We care deeply about our partners and do not plan to make policy changes without a full consultation with industry groups and leaders. We’re committed to getting this right. As we expect this consultation could extend beyond November 20, we would delay implementation.” Until then, the current terms will remain intact.
Stone’s remarks follow growing apprehension over the update, which allows Meta to scrape websites of businesses. The terms specify that Meta has the right to “use automated software (like web scrapers, bots, robots, spiders, crawlers, and user agents)” to access business websites “in order to provide, develop, improve, research, and maintain advertising and business products.”
Concerns have been voiced by publishers, with one group deeming the change “outrageous and possibly illegal.” A collection of media outlets based in Norway has even launched a lawsuit against Meta over these new provisions. This week, California Senator Adam Schiff became the second politician to urge Meta to reverse its decisions.
In a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Schiff remarked, “The scope of these updated provisions is extraordinary. Meta claims an alarming ability to circumvent technical measures crucial for the economic stability of news organizations and subscription-based creators, including paywalls, registration requirements, and digital subscriber barriers. The updated terms lack an option for businesses to opt out of scraping while keeping their accounts active.”
Despite the backlash, Meta has made few meaningful adjustments to its terms since slightly altering the language earlier this month. Stone has defended the new terms, stating that they are “not about scraping news sites” and that they will honor content creators’ robots.txt preferences.
However, legal experts and publishing organizations have highlighted that robots.txt instructions are not legally enforceable and are often disregarded by AI firms. Furthermore, Meta’s terms make no reference to robots.txt, as Senator Schiff noted in his correspondence. “Without specific language to codify Meta’s policy to respect robots.txt signals in the current terms, users have no reliable way to safeguard their content,” he stated.
Meta has not yet responded to inquiries regarding potential further changes to its terms.
