Brief
Meta expands commercial terms to allow crawling of business sites beyond advertisers
The new clause gives Meta permission to scrape content from any site tied to a business using its services, not just advertisers.
By Felo News Desk · Published
Meta announced that its revised Commercial Terms, which take effect on Oct. 30, will permit the company to crawl websites associated with any business that uses its products and to use that content for product development and AI training, according to Search Engine Journal.
What happened
The updated terms add a paragraph that authorises Meta—or anyone acting on its behalf—to employ web scrapers, bots and other automated tools to collect content from domains and pages linked to a business’s products or services. The clause also covers URLs made available through the business’s use of Meta’s products or through users’ interactions with them, and allows Meta to create test credentials to access those pages. The change applies to all business use of Meta’s services, from advertising to managing a Facebook Page, and is mirrored in the revised Self‑Serve Ad Terms that also become effective on Oct. 30.
What the reports add
Search Engine Journal notes that the new permission extends beyond Meta’s existing ad terms, which already allow crawling of advertisers’ sites for purposes that include training. The update therefore reaches businesses that do not purchase ads. The outlet also cites a response from Meta spokesperson Andy Stoner on X, in which he said the change is intended to ensure Meta can pull accurate product information for ad and content recommendations and is "not about scraping news sites."
What was said
Andy Stoner told Search Engine Journal via X that the update is meant to help Meta gather correct product details for recommendations and that it is "not about scraping news sites." The article also references Matt Topic, a media and intellectual‑property attorney, who told Nieman Lab that while there is no guarantee a court would enforce the provision, the language could support an argument that Meta is permitted to scrape news‑site content for AI training.
How it came about
The revision follows earlier reporting by Nieman Lab on Oct. 15 about Meta’s intent to broaden its data‑collection rights. The new clause aligns with Meta’s broader strategy of leveraging user‑generated and business‑generated content to improve its AI products, a theme explored in recent Felo coverage of Meta’s Muse AI and Starfire Kylie Edition AI glasses.
Key facts
- Meta's revised Commercial Terms take effect on Oct. 30. (searchenginejournal.com)
- The new clause permits Meta to crawl any website linked to a business using its products. (searchenginejournal.com)
- Meta may use collected content to develop, improve, research and train its products. (searchenginejournal.com)
- Meta spokesperson Andy Stoner said the change is not about scraping news sites. (searchenginejournal.com)
- Attorney Matt Topic said the language could support an argument for scraping news sites for AI training. (searchenginejournal.com)
Sources
- [1] searchenginejournal.com — originally reported as “Meta's New Terms Expand Crawling Rights Beyond Advertisers”
