Meta’s Updated Business Terms Could Let It Scrape News Sites to Train AI
Starting October 30, 2026, Meta’s terms may authorize bots to scrape sites linked to businesses using Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger for AI training. Meta says crawler practices are unchanged and robots.txt preferences remain supported.
Meta’s updated commercial terms, set to take effect October 30th, 2026, appear to grant the company broad permission to crawl and scrape websites associated with businesses that use its platforms — potentially including news publishers — and use that content to train its AI products.
The new language, first flagged by Nieman Lab, explicitly authorizes Meta to deploy “web scrapers, bots, robots, spiders, crawlers, and user agents” to access domains, web pages, and URLs linked to products or services promoted through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. The terms state that Meta may use content gathered this way to “provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain” its products and services.
Legal experts say the implications could be significant. James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and information law at Cornell, told Nieman Lab that the terms represent “permission to Meta to train AI on any content from their sites and possibly to deploy some of that content, even in competition with the publishers themselves.” Other legal experts cited by Nieman Lab suggested Meta could use the terms to argue its commercial policies override blocking instructions such as a site’s robots.txt file.
Meta pushed back on that reading. Spokesperson Daniel Roberts said there is “no change to how Meta uses web crawlers,” adding that content owners can still use robots.txt flags to signal their preferences. Andy Stone, Meta’s vice president of communications, said the update is designed to pull accurate product information for on-platform ad recommendations — “not about scraping news sites.”
The timing adds context. Last month, Meta launched a Meta One subscription requiring businesses and creators to pay to include links in posts and reels. Nieman Lab noted the contrast: “Meta has begun charging users to post links to the same content that it will be permitted to crawl for free.”
Businesses that decline the new terms will be barred from using Meta’s products for commercial purposes. Meta has previously struck AI licensing deals with CNN, Fox News, USA Today, and People Inc., but the updated terms could potentially give it access to a much wider range of content without similar agreements.