Meta removes word “train” from commercial terms after criticism — Ars Technica

Meta has changed the wording of its new commercial terms of use, removing the word “train” from the list of possible ways to use information from websites linked to business pages. The updated rules are set to take effect on October 30. This was reported by Ars Technica.

What changed in the terms

The initial version allowed Meta to use “any content” from websites whose links are posted on business pages to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of the company’s products, services, or features.

The new version contains neither the word “train” nor the wording “any content.” Instead, Meta says it may periodically receive updates from business users’ websites to provide, develop, improve, research, and support advertising and business products, as well as to ensure the integrity and security of its own products.

The company said the combined terms regarding website crawling apply only to advertising and business products. Meta also claims that the changes do not give it new rights that would override content owners’ signals through the robots.txt file.

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Comments from lawyers and publishers

However, experts surveyed by Nieman Lab believe the new wording remains too broad. Media and intellectual property lawyer Matt Topic said that permission to use collected content to develop any “business product” could potentially also cover AI training. Cornell Law School professor James Grimmelmann also stressed that the formula concerning the development of advertising and business products is still very broad.

University of Wisconsin law professor Benjamin Sobel noted that, to provide clearer protection for website owners, Meta should explicitly commit to following instructions in robots.txt. According to him, compliance with such instructions is voluntary, and the updated commercial terms do not contain such a commitment.

Representatives of news organizations in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the United States called on regulators to intervene. The European Publishers Council has already appealed to the European Commission, stating that publishers should decide for themselves whether to allow the use of their journalism and negotiate fair compensation.