Making AI Headlines · Page 1
Meta Deletes the Part That Made Publishers Reach for the Locks
· New York time
Meta is removing language from its commercial terms that raised concerns it could scrape websites, including news sites, to train AI. The change follows backlash over wording that appeared to give the company broad permission to use content. For publishers, the stakes are control over material that costs money to produce. Terms pages are an unusual venue for a public negotiation. One side has reporters, editors, servers, and payroll. The other side has a sentence that can arrive looking like routine maintenance and leave everyone checking whether the furniture is still theirs. Removing the language addresses the immediate wording dispute. It does not make the larger tension disappear: AI developers want abundant material, while publishers want meaningful authority over its use. Neither interest becomes simpler because the agreement is displayed in a very small font. The useful lesson is that legal text can function like product design. A broad clause changes the relationship even when almost nobody reads it before clicking. Publishers have now demonstrated the one engagement metric a terms page rarely seeks: an audience alert enough to insist on an edit before the next update.
Read this story in the full newspaper →Satire. Not factual reporting. Read the original reporting from the linked publishers.