Meta's new business terms let it scrape linked sites from Oct. 30

Meta's new commercial terms of use, set to take effect on October 30, let the company use web scrapers to crawl and collect content from websites 'associated with' business accounts on its platforms. Business accounts let companies or public figures manage Facebook pages, Messenger accounts, Instagram profiles or WhatsApp channels from one place, and Nieman Lab reports that virtually every news organization has at least one, including itself. The terms broadly cover accounts that manage pages and groups, run ads, push marketing messages and use the business dashboard.

Meta alerted users in early October through a blog post and the Meta Business Suite. The terms say Meta may use automated software (web scrapers, bots, robots, spiders, crawlers and user agents) and create 'test credentials' to access, index, cache, analyze, collect, retrieve or crawl the domains, pages or URLs associated with a business's products or services, and to pull updates periodically. Meta may use any such content to 'provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of' its products and features. Elsewhere in its terms, Meta defines 'AI at Meta' as one of those products.

Three legal experts who reviewed the terms at Nieman Lab's request said that, as written, they could be used to argue that Meta can scrape news-site content and use it to train its AI products. Matt Topic, a media and intellectual property attorney at Loevy & Loevy, called it a remarkable provision to bury in the terms, since it would give Meta access to material that would likely cost many millions of dollars in a licensing market. He said it is not clear whether a court would enforce it, but publishers should assume it would be. James Grimmelmann, a professor of digital and information law at Cornell Law School, said the terms clearly represent permission for Meta to train AI on any content from publishers' sites and possibly to deploy some of it in competition with them. On the broadest reading, he said, Meta could build a comprehensive archive of all content and serve it as it wished, directly or through AI.

There is currently no option for business accounts to opt out ahead of October 30. The update says: 'If you do not agree to the updated terms, please stop all access or use of our Products for business or commercial purposes.' Grimmelmann summed up the choice: publishers either trust that Meta does not mean the full extent of the terms, or stop using business accounts.

Meta declined to answer a list of questions. A public affairs spokesperson said by email that language about crawling was previously scattered across different terms, including those on generative AI in ads, and the update consolidates it in one place. The spokesperson also said the terms will not change how Meta crawls publishers in the future, and that content owners can still manage access with robots.txt. Meta's developer page currently explains how to block its crawlers that way. Legal experts countered that the new wording gives Meta an opening to argue its commercial terms supersede other blocking instructions. Grimmelmann added that the 'test credentials' language would technically let Meta 'sign up as a fake user' to get past registration walls on a publisher's site. Meta declined to say whether the test credentials would bypass paywalls or other paid content.

The experts stressed that any attempt to train Meta's AI on content gathered under the terms would still hinge on unsettled legal questions about AI training and fair use. Several lawsuits between publishers and AI developers are moving through federal courts, including a class-action suit filed in May by five large book publishers alleging Meta pirated millions of books to train its Llama models. Benjamin Sobel, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin, said tying access to business products to broad scraping permissions echoes an antitrust concept called 'tying'. He compared it to Google's recent policies for AI search: to appear in traditional results, publishers now have to consent to use of their content in AI Overviews and AI Mode.

The terms follow the rollout of Meta One, a paid subscription service that limits the number of external links some Facebook and Instagram accounts can post without subscribing. Nieman Lab notes that Meta has begun charging users to post links to the same content it will be allowed to crawl for free. Press Gazette reported earlier this month that some news publishers are currently exempt from the link limit. Meta declined to answer questions about the service.

Nieman Lab learned of the change from a reader tip. Stephen Beale, founder and editor of The Steampunk Explorer, saw the notice in his Business Suite dashboard. He said the change felt different from the usual worry about Meta training on posted content, because it claims a right to grab information from wherever a business user has a presence. His readers skew older and are 'totally entrenched on Facebook', yet he is seriously considering shutting down his accounts before October 30. 'I know my site has been scraped to death,' he said, but the move seems arrogant to him and he does not want Meta to get away with it.

Key facts

Meta's updated commercial terms take effect October 30 and authorize it to crawl websites associated with business accounts, including with 'test credentials', and to use the content to train its products.
Meta defines 'AI at Meta' as one of those products; three legal experts told Nieman Lab the terms could be used to argue this covers news-site content.
There is currently no opt-out; the update tells users who disagree to stop using Meta products for business or commercial purposes.
A Meta spokesperson says the terms will not change how Meta crawls publishers and that robots.txt still works; experts say the wording lets Meta argue its terms supersede robots.txt.
Any AI training on the collected content would still hinge on unsettled fair use questions, and Meta declined to answer Nieman Lab's list of questions.

Why it matters

The terms tie access to Meta's business tools to broad permission to crawl and train on content from associated websites. Matt Topic estimates the material would likely cost many millions of dollars in a licensing market. Benjamin Sobel says the arrangement echoes the antitrust concept of 'tying' and compares it to Google requiring publishers to accept AI Overviews and AI Mode use in order to appear in traditional search. The terms also arrive after Meta One began charging some accounts to post external links, so Meta charges for links to content it may crawl for free.

Who it affects

Any holder of a Meta business account whose pages, groups, ads or marketing messages are managed through the business dashboard. Nieman Lab says virtually every news organization has at least one such account, though journalism is not the only affected industry. Stephen Beale of The Steampunk Explorer is one small publisher weighing whether to close his accounts, while depending on Facebook to reach his audience.

How to use it

The source describes few options. There is currently no opt-out before October 30, and Meta's notice says those who disagree should stop using its products for business or commercial purposes. Meta's spokesperson points to robots.txt, and its developer page has instructions for blocking its crawlers that way. Beale is considering closing his accounts before the deadline. Grimmelmann frames the choice as trusting Meta not to mean the full extent of the terms, or leaving business accounts.

How solid is it

The report rests on Meta's own terms, quoted at length, and on three named legal experts who reviewed them at Nieman Lab's request. Their claims are about what the terms 'could be used to argue', not about what Meta has done. Meta declined to answer a list of questions and gave only a spokesperson's emailed statement. The source does not say that Meta has already scraped news sites under these terms.

Risks and caveats

Topic says it is not clear whether a court would enforce the provision. Any AI training on the collected content would still hinge on unsettled legal questions about AI training and fair use, with several publisher and AI developer lawsuits pending in federal courts. Meta says the terms consolidate existing crawling language and will not change how it crawls publishers, and Meta did not confirm it will use scraped publisher content to train AI. Whether 'test credentials' would bypass paywalls or paid content is unanswered, because Meta declined to say.

“For news publishers, this clearly represents 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”

— James Grimmelmann, professor of digital and information law at Cornell Law School