Meta drops AI scraping language from terms

meta has updated its terms to remove language that experts said allowed the scraping of news sites to train its ai. the removed language stated that meta may use any content from domains, web pages, or urls to provide, develop, improve, research, train, and maintain its products, services, and features. this change comes after backlash from experts, including james grimmelmann, a professor of digital and information law at cornell, and neiman lab. meta's vice president of communications, andy stone, and spokesperson daniel roberts initially pushed back, stating that there was no change to how meta uses web crawlers. however, today's update and a new statement removed the controversial language entirely. according to roberts, the crawling terms only applied to meta's ads and business products, and the update does not change how meta uses web crawlers.