Meta’s new terms may allow free scraping of news sites for AI training

Meta has rewritten the fine print for businesses on its platforms. According to Nieman Lab, the new language appears to let the company crawl and scrape websites “associated” with those businesses, and that includes online publishers. The updated terms take effect on October 30, 2026. Once they do, Meta says it can use that outside content to “develop, improve, research,” and “train” its AI products. For newsrooms that have spent recent years negotiating payment for their archives, that’s an uncomfortable sentence. What the new terms actually say The changes sit inside Meta’s commercial terms of service. That is the rulebook for business accounts, not for the average person posting vacation photos. The scope is broad. It covers any business account that manages pages or groups, runs ads, or uses Meta’s business tools across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. The terms permit Meta to use automated tools, such as web scrapers and crawlers, to collect content tied to those accounts. The stated uses are wide-ranging. They include providing and developing Meta’s products, and training them. The terms define those products to include “AI at Meta,” so the AI angle is written di...