Meta removes provision allowing broader web scraping for AI training after backlash

Meta removed a newly inserted provision from its commercial terms of use that suggested it could scrape content from news sites and web pages for AI training.

Legal experts criticized the provision for potentially overriding site-level blocking instructions specified in robots.txt files.

A company spokesperson insisted the update did not reflect any change in how Meta crawls the web or give it new rights superseding robots.txt preferences.