Legal experts say Meta's revised business terms still permit scraping news sites
Meta's updated business terms take effect October 30, and legal scholars say the new wording on its face still supports scraping news site content, leaving publisher concerns unresolved.
Meta was reported on October 23 as having updated business terms that take effect on October 30. Several publishers had raised concerns that the wording leaves room for AI training to scrape news site content.
Legal scholars including James Grimmelmann of Cornell University and Matt Topic of Loevy & Loevy analysed the language and concluded that on its face the new terms still support scraping, so the core publisher concern is unresolved. Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts did not respond substantively.
The dispute centres on ambiguity between the scope of the licence and the limits on use. Neither side has filed suit, and practical impact will depend on enforcement practice and contract interpretation.