One signal

Meta has revised commercial terms that raised concerns about news websites being used to train AI models. The new wording, due to take effect on 30 October, says automated crawling is for developing, improving, researching and maintaining advertising and business products.

The change does not stop Meta using crawlers to collect content from websites associated with businesses using its platforms. Meta spokesperson Daniel Roberts says the revision does not change existing crawling practices, and that website owners can still use robots.txt to indicate access preferences. That is a meaningful clarification, not a blanket promise that linked content will never be collected. Daily Sabah, carrying an Anadolu Agency report, says the earlier wording referred to training Meta products. The distinction between stated purpose and what the crawlers can still access is where the argument now sits.

Discuss: Are revised terms and robots.txt controls enough to protect publishers’ content, or should platforms need explicit permission before crawling it?

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