Meta removes language that raised scraping and AI training concerns

# Meta removes language that raised scraping and AI training concerns | TechCrunch Source: [https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/17/meta-removes-language-that-raised-scraping-and-ai-training-concerns/](https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/17/meta-removes-language-that-raised-scraping-and-ai-training-concerns/) Meta recently updated its commercial terms of use, declaring that the company can “use any content from \[a business account’s\] domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain the integrity of” Meta products and services\. According to[legal experts interviewed by Nieman Lab](https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/10/metas-new-commercial-terms-will-allow-the-scraping-of-news-sites-legal-experts-say/), this looked like a “remarkable provision” that could give Meta permission to scrape the website of any publisher with a Meta business account and use the content to train the company’s AI models\. \(While[Meta defeated a high\-profile lawsuit over alleged copyright infringement](https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/25/federal-judge-sides-with-meta-in-lawsuit-over-training-ai-models-on-copyrighted-books/)last year,[other cases](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/05/publishers-sue-meta-copyright-ai)against AI companies, including Meta, continue\.\) However, a Meta spokesperson[insisted](https://x.com/andymstone/status/2111101865769201850)that the updated terms did not reflect a change in the way Meta crawls the web\. And now,[The Verge reports](https://www.theverge.com/tech/1013409/meta-removes-language-that-may-have-allowed-it-to-scrape-news-sites)that the provision has been removed\. “We’ve heard you and want to clarify: the crawling terms we consolidated only applied to our ads and business products, and we’ve clarified that in the terms themselves,” the company said in a statement\. “It does not change how Meta uses web crawlers\.”