Meta has eliminated the word “train” from its “streamlined” commercial terms of service that take effect on October 30, in an effort to ease growing criticism. The change follows a backlash last week when legal analysts warned that the company’s broad new commercial terms appeared to allow Meta to continuously scrape websites linked on business pages. Experts speaking to Nieman Lab suggested that the policy could let Meta sidestep millions of dollars in licensing fees owed to news organizations by obligating all business users to provide extensive AI training data simply to operate a business page.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed that the company did not notify users about the wording change after the criticism, a move that may increase confusion ahead of the policy’s rollout. Responding to the outcry, the spokesperson issued a statement to Ars, acknowledging Nieman Lab’s initial report but not its subsequent follow‑up that reiterated the experts’ concerns.