Meta Removes 'Train' from Business Crawling Terms After Publisher Backlash
The company narrowed the stated scope of its upcoming commercial crawler rules to ads and business tools, but publishers note the terms still lack an explicit ban on AI training.
Meta has updated the language in its upcoming business terms of service, removing the word “train” from clauses governing how its automated systems scrape websites linked to its commercial tools, as reported by The Next Web (https://thenextweb.com/news/meta-drops-train-from-its-website-crawling-terms-after-backlash).
The changes followed pushback from commercial customers and media outlets after reports highlighted that the terms would allow Meta to access, copy, and re-crawl client sites to train its internal products. In a statement to the Mercury News, Meta said, “We’ve heard you and want to clarify,” adding that the crawling rules were only ever intended to support its advertising and business products.
The updated terms take effect on Oct. 30 and apply automatically to organizations that continue using Meta's commercial offerings. The policy governs automated tools including web scrapers, crawlers, spiders, bots, and user agents. While Meta clarified that the policy wording now focuses strictly on commercial tools, it confirmed that the technical operation of its crawlers is not changing.
Industry representatives say the revisions remain incomplete. Sam Quigley, a spokesperson for the News/Media Alliance representing U.S. publishers, told the Mercury News that striking training from the list of authorized uses does not amount to an express prohibition on the practice. Quigley also pointed out that the terms make no explicit commitment to honor robots.txt, the web standard site operators use to signal crawler restrictions.
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