Home / Business and Economy / Meta's AI push sparks EU/UK content fight
Meta's AI push sparks EU/UK content fight
22 Oct
Summary
- Meta's new terms may grant unlimited AI use of publisher content.
- Groups urge EU and UK regulators to suspend Meta's upcoming terms.
- Meta claims terms only apply to ads, not general web scraping.
Digital advertisers and publishers have formally requested that EU and UK regulators suspend Meta Platforms' new commercial terms, scheduled to become effective on October 30. The Movement for an Open Web, representing various digital advertising and publishing entities, has lodged a complaint with the European Commission and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
These groups contend that Meta's impending terms would grant the company an unrestricted right to utilize their content for its artificial intelligence services. Tim Cowen, a co-founder of the Movement for an Open Web, expressed concern that businesses would be compelled to relinquish rights to their digital content without a viable opt-out mechanism.
Meta has refuted these allegations, asserting that the consolidated crawling terms specifically pertain to their advertising and business products and do not represent an expansion of their web scraping capabilities. A Meta spokesperson clarified that content owners can continue to use robots.txt to signal their preferences.
The CMA confirmed it met with Meta to discuss the new terms and acknowledged the significant concerns raised by UK businesses. The European Commission also confirmed receipt of the complaint and stated it would be assessed according to standard procedures, with a commitment to ensuring Meta's compliance with EU laws.
