Meta Revises Business Terms Yet Still Permits Broad Site Scraping

Meta's updated business account terms, effective Oct. 30, drop the word "train" but still allow automated crawling of linked sites, sparking publisher backlash.

NationPulse Desk

Oct 20, 2026 · 9:57 PM 3 min read

Key takeaways

Meta's revised business terms will take effect on October 30.

The update removes the word "train" but still allows automated crawling of sites tied to business accounts.

Andy Stone said the changes apply only to Meta's advertising and business products and are not about news sites.

Legal experts say the new language still gives Meta broad permission to scrape news websites.

Publishers' leaders called the terms outrageous, illegal and a shameless landgrab.

Meta has altered its forthcoming business-account terms after concerns from publishers and other firms that the clauses could let the company scrape websites tied to Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Engadget reported that the company eliminated a direct reference to AI training in the revised commercial terms, yet the new wording still permits the use of automated tools to fetch and gather content from sites linked to business accounts.

The updated provisions are set to become active on October 30.

Original Terms Included AI Training

Nieman Lab first noted the changes after Meta added language allowing it to employ web scrapers, bots, spiders, crawlers and similar software to access, index, cache, analyze, collect and retrieve material from websites associated with business accounts.

The initial phrasing indicated Meta could use that material to "provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity" of its products and services.

This alarmed observers because many major digital publishers keep business accounts on Facebook or Instagram, potentially subjecting their sites to the terms.

Meta Removes the Word "Train"

Meta later made a quiet amendment to the terms.

The firm took out the word "train" and narrowed the purpose of scraping to supporting, developing, improving, researching and maintaining its advertising and business products.

Even with the revision, the terms still authorize Meta and its agents to employ automated software to crawl domains, web pages and URLs tied to businesses and to periodically pull updates.

Spokesperson Andy Stone said the clarification shows the changes apply solely to Meta's advertising and business offerings.

He added the update is "not about scraping news sites" and that Meta is not altering its current use of web crawlers.

Legal Experts Still See Broader Scraping Rights

Despite the tweak, Nieman Lab reported that the new language continues to represent a notable expansion of Meta's scraping capabilities.

Several legal experts told the outlet that the revised terms appear to grant Meta wide-reaching permission to scrape news websites with few constraints.

Stone asserted the changes do not give Meta fresh rights to override website owners' robots.txt settings.

However, robots.txt directives are not legally enforceable, and AI firms have previously faced accusations of disregarding or circumventing them.

Publishers Push Back

The controversy arises amid a tense relationship between Meta and news publishers.

Meta halted payments to publishers for news in 2022 and removed its dedicated news tab in 2024. More recently, the company signed deals with several publishers to feed news content to its AI chatbot.

Media industry groups have sharply criticized the new terms.

Danielle Coffey, CEO of the News/Media Alliance, called the rules "outrageous and probably illegal."

Theo Bamber, head of the UK's News Media Association, labeled the changes a "shameless landgrab attempt."

Meta maintains that the revised provisions concern only its advertising and business products, but publishers keep questioning how extensively the company will be able to scrape content from sites linked to Meta business accounts.

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