META
Delete, delete, delete
Meta has updated its business terms following criticism over wording that suggested it could use content from websites, including news publishers, to train its AI models without permission.
The wording suggested Meta could collect and use website content to develop, improve and train its AI systems.
This raised concerns among publishers and legal experts, who believed Meta could use their content for free, even if they had set rules to stop AI tools from accessing their websites.
Cornell law professor James Grimmelmann and media publication Nieman Lab were among those who questioned whether the terms could override robots.txt, a file that tells automated tools which parts of a website they should avoid.
In brief:
Meta removed wording that raised concerns about using website content to train its AI models.
The terms only applied to its advertising and business products, and the company says its web crawling practices haven't changed.
Website owners can still use robots.txt to signal which content they don't want crawlers to access, and Meta says its terms don't override those preferences.
Objection, your Zuckerberg
Meta denied these claims, saying the wording did not change how its web crawlers work or give the company any new rights to collect content.
Following the backlash, Meta has removed the disputed wording and explained what its terms mean.
Meta maintains that the wording was never meant to give it permission to scrape news websites or ignore publishers' restrictions.
Sneaky move, or misunderstanding? -MV