Meta Narrows Scraping Terms But Experts Say Powers Remain Vast

Meta revised its business account terms of service to remove language explicitly permitting AI training on scraped website content. The company removed the word “train” and limited scraping uses to “advertising and business products” rather than all Meta products. But legal experts argue the revision is merely cosmetic—the core authorization for broad website scraping remains unchanged and potentially more powerful than Meta’s existing narrower AI-specific scraping terms.

The revised clause still permits automated scraping of any website “associated with” a business account and allows Meta to use that content to “develop” business products. Attorneys point out that neither “associated with” nor “develop” are defined terms, leaving the scope dangerously vague. Meta maintains robots.txt preferences are respected but declined to add explicit guarantees to the terms themselves. This distinction matters: robots.txt compliance is purely voluntary, not legally binding.

Three legal experts consulted expressed serious concerns that the revised language still enables precisely what Meta revised it to appear to restrict. Publishing organizations across Europe, the UK, and the US formally objected, with some describing the move as an abuse of market power. The terms take effect October 30 without any opt-out mechanism for the vast majority of news organizations that maintain business accounts with Meta.