# Meta drops AI-training line from its business terms: what it means

> Meta removed the word "train" from a web-crawling clause in its pending commercial terms after publishers objected.

*After publishers objected, Meta removed a sentence about training AI on crawled content from its pending commercial terms, though it can still crawl business sites.*

By Bez · SuggestedTech
Canonical: https://suggestedtech.com/news/meta-drops-ai-training-line-from-its-business-terms-what-it-means

Meta has changed a clause in its upcoming business terms. The old wording let it use content from business-linked websites to train AI. The new wording no longer mentions training, but Meta can still crawl those sites.

## What happened

Meta's pending Commercial Terms included a sentence saying Meta "may use any content from such domains, web pages, or URLs to provide, develop, improve, research, train". That sentence is now gone, and the verb "train" no longer appears in the provision. Training, in AI terms, means feeding a system large amounts of material so it learns patterns from it.

According to [Unite.AI's report](https://www.unite.ai/meta-rewrites-web-crawling-clause-in-pending-commercial-terms/), an archived capture of the page from 16 October shows the original clause. A capture from the early hours of 17 October shows the revised wording. Unite.AI infers the edit from those captures, and Meta has not said it changed the text.

The revised clause still lets Meta, or anyone acting for it, use "web scrapers, bots, robots, spiders, crawlers, and user agents" to "access, index, cache, analyze, collect, retrieve, or crawl" business users' domains and pages. Its stated purpose is now to "provide, develop, improve, research, and maintain advertising and business products", and to maintain the integrity and security of Meta products.

Other edits include:

- The licence section for shared content is shorter.
- The sentence about helping users create and deliver ads is gone.
- The Self-Serve Ad Terms preview carries the same revised clause.
- Product Catalog Terms are folded into the Commercial Terms, and Ad Creative Generative AI Terms into the Self-Serve Ad Terms.

The revised terms still take effect on 30 October 2026.

## What it means for you

If you run a business with a website linked to Meta's advertising tools, the written terms no longer say Meta may train AI on your content. They do still allow Meta's crawlers to collect and store pages from your domain for advertising and business products.

Publishers pushed back. Danielle Coffey, president and CEO of the News/Media Alliance, called the terms "outrageous and probably illegal" and said they could not be implemented on 30 October.

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the update "was not about scraping news sites". He said there was no change to how Meta uses web crawlers, and that content owners can use robots.txt flags. Robots.txt is a file on a website that tells crawlers which pages they may or may not visit. Both statements came on 16 October.

The notes do not say whether Meta will in practice stop using crawled content for AI training, only that the wording has changed.

## What happens next

The terms are due to take effect on 30 October 2026, and the revised version is the one currently scheduled. Meta has not said it changed the text, so whether it will comment on the edit is not yet known. The News/Media Alliance has said the terms could not be implemented by that date.

## Key takeaways

- Meta's pending business terms no longer say crawled content can be used to train AI.
- Meta can still crawl business-linked websites for advertising and business products.
- The revised terms still take effect on 30 October 2026.

## Sources

- [Meta rewrites web-crawling clause in pending commercial terms](https://www.unite.ai/meta-rewrites-web-crawling-clause-in-pending-commercial-terms/) — Unite.AI, 2026-10-17