Meta Pauses Terms Update That Would Enable AI Use of Facebook-Linked Content

Meta paused a proposed change to its commercial terms that would have required Meta Business account users to allow AI training on external websites linked from their Facebook pages.

The proposal covered material on outside sites reached through pages managed by business accounts, extending beyond content posted directly on Facebook. Meta said its existing terms remain in effect while it continues consulting stakeholders.

The update was first scheduled to take effect Oct. 30, then postponed to Nov. 20 as Facebook users objected and legal and regulatory pressure grew. Preliminary injunctions in Brazil and Norway blocked the terms after organizations challenged them in court. In the U.K., the Competition and Markets Authority opened an investigation into whether Meta's terms could let it use its market position to obtain publisher material for AI training. Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., asked Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to withdraw the update.

The terms would have made continued commercial use of a Facebook page conditional on giving Meta permission to crawl linked sites. They allowed Meta to use material collected by those crawlers to develop and train its products. Businesses had no separate opt-out from the crawling provision.

Meta's initial revision removed an explicit reference to training while retaining language about developing its products. Theo Bamber, chief executive of the U.K.'s News Media Association, argued that the remaining wording still raised concerns because it allowed collected content to be used to develop business products. The proposed terms also called for publishers to provide test credentials so Meta's crawlers could access paywalled sites.

Meta had said its crawling practices were unchanged and website operators could use robots.txt, a standard file for signaling crawler preferences. The planned terms did not specifically promise to honor those signals.

On Oct. 28, Meta Vice President of Communications Andy Stone wrote in a post that consultation with industry groups and leaders could continue beyond Nov. 20. Stone said Meta would delay implementation if that happened, making Nov. 20 a conditional start date. The terms are now paused, and Meta has not announced a replacement date.