Legal experts are warning that Meta is set to update its commercial terms, forcing business accounts to allow the company to train AI on their linked website content, not just their social media posts. The change, kicking in on October 30, will see businesses unable to opt out, with the suggestion they cease using Meta services if they refuse to agree to the terms.

For news publishers, this could be a game-changer. Currently, they are battling OpenAI over whether unlicensed AI training on their articles is fair use. But Meta’s terms appear to grant sweeping permissions, regardless of court decisions. The updated terms state that businesses authorize Meta to use automated software to access, index, and analyze their content, all in the name of AI training.

Specifically, the updated terms read: 'You authorize us (or any entity acting on our behalf) to use automated software (such as web scrapers, bots, robots, spiders, crawlers, and user agents) and create test credentials to access, index, cache, analyze, collect, retrieve, or crawl the domains, web pages, or URLs (and any content available through them) that are associated with your products or services, or that are made available through your or users’ use of Meta Company Products and services, and to periodically pull updates from such domains, web pages, or URLs. Meta may use any content from such domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of, the Meta Company Products, services, and features provided under these Commercial Terms and any other applicable supplemental terms.'

There is no mention of AI, but the reference to 'training' and automated scraping and crawling implies its intentions. While journalism isn't the only industry affected, virtually every news organization has at least one Meta business account, including Nieman Lab.