Meta delays new business terms until November 20 — The Verge

Meta has postponed the entry into force of its new business terms until November 20 following publishers’ objections over the possibility of collecting materials from news websites to train artificial intelligence systems. The terms were initially set to take effect on October 30, The Verge reports.

Publishers’ concerns

According to publishers, the new rules could have given Meta permission to scan news websites using its platforms without restrictions and use the obtained materials to train AI. The company changed the wording by removing a reference to training its products, but legal experts believed this did not rule out such a possibility.

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In a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the News/Media Alliance demanded that the terms be revised, citing a risk of “serious harm” to publishers. Digital advertisers and publishers from the European Union and the United Kingdom also called on regulators to force Meta to halt the implementation of the rules.

Meta’s explanation

Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts said the postponement was needed to give the company more time to explain to partners and stakeholders what is changing and what is not. According to him, Meta will also provide further clarification on how it uses web crawlers and that content owners will still be able to use the robots.txt file to communicate their preferences regarding website crawling.