Meta has put off new terms for its business accounts after publishers and open web groups warned that the terms could give it broad rights to scrape websites and potentially build competing services. The company says it will not change policy without a full consultation with industry groups and leaders.
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What the new terms allow
The rules were set to start Oct. 30 and would let Meta use automated software, including scrapers and bots, to “index, cache, analyze, collect, retrieve, or crawl” the domains, web pages and URLs associated with a business account.
All business clients would have been covered whether or not they objected, with no compensation for the content collected, AP reported. Nieman Lab reported that business accounts had no way to opt out before the Oct. 30 start date.
Critics said Meta could use that content to build AI products that compete with publishers. But Meta says the terms do not change how it uses web crawlers, and a spokesperson told Nieman Lab that content owners can still use robots.txt to manage access. The terms apply only to business accounts, AP noted, though public posts from regular users can already be scraped to train AI models.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said on X on Oct. 16 that the update is meant to let Meta pull accurate details about products for sale on other websites to inform ad and content recommendations, and is “not about scraping news sites.”
His comments came a day after Nieman Lab reported that three legal experts who reviewed the terms said they could be used to argue that Meta may scrape news sites to train its AI products.
Meta said on Oct. 29 that it was listening to feedback and that its current terms would stay in place for now. Stone posted that the company does not plan to change policy “without a full consultation with industry groups and leaders.”
Regulators and courts step in
The strongest legal action so far has come in Europe. A Norwegian court granted a temporary injunction on Oct. 28, suspending the terms at the request of 180 Norwegian media companies, pending a full review of their legality. The case had the backing of the Norwegian Media Businesses’ Association (MBL), whose member newspapers account for roughly 97% of the country’s circulation.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority opened its own investigation Oct. 30, saying that requiring publishers to accept the terms could amount to “an unlawful imposition of unfair trading conditions.” The European Commission said it had discussed the terms with Meta and welcomed the delay.
AP reported that no U.S. lawsuits appear to have been filed, though the Association of American Publishers has urged Meta to drop the terms.
But the MBL says the delay is not enough. Its CEO said Norwegian media want Meta to commit to three conditions:
- Respect publishers’ opt-outs from scraping.
- Use journalism in AI products only under a separate, voluntary, paid agreement.
- Avoid sidelining publishers who decline the terms on its platforms.
What it means for BPO clients and providers
The terms apply to any business with Meta ads, pages, and Instagram or WhatsApp business accounts, many of which are managed by BPO teams. Accepting them on a client’s behalf could grant Meta crawl access to that client’s websites.
Providers should get client sign-off before agreeing to updated platform terms and watch for revised wording as regulators review the changes.
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Deck, A., & Tameez, H. (2026, October 15). Meta’s new commercial terms will allow the scraping of news sites, legal experts say. Nieman Journalism Lab. https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/10/metas-new-commercial-terms-will-allow-the-scraping-of-news-sites-legal-experts-say/
Ortutay, B., & Ciobanu, C. (2026, November 3). Meta delays new business terms after outcry over potential web scraping of news sites. ABC News (Associated Press). https://abcnews.com/Technology/wireStory/meta-delays-new-business-terms-after-outcry-potential-137777976
