# Meta Indefinitely Halts Controversial AI Training Terms for Business Accounts Meta pauses policy changes allowing AI scraping of external sites after intense global backlash. - **Source:** [Ars Technica - All content](https://brifing.si/source/b728770c-8dda-457a-8986-84879c9fc42c) - **Published:** 2026-11-06 - **Topic:** [technology](https://brifing.si/c/technology) - **Original article:** - **On Brifing:** https://brifing.si/s/ccd8bf10-3233-4181-b92c-ccc0a9437961 ## Policy Update Halted Meta has indefinitely suspended updates to its commercial and advertising terms that would have allowed extensive AI training on external websites linked to Facebook business accounts. The changes, originally scheduled for October 30 and later pushed to November 20, will not take effect as planned while the company engages in further stakeholder consultations. ## Scope of Scraping The proposed terms would have required business users to permit Meta to crawl linked external sites for AI development. Legal experts warned the language was vague enough to bypass robots.txt files, potentially allowing Meta to scrape vast amounts of content from news publishers and other organizations without paying necessary licensing fees. ## Mandatory Access Requirements Under the planned terms, businesses would have been forced to allow Meta to crawl their external sites to maintain a Facebook page. The policy even required publishers to provide test credentials, effectively enabling Meta’s bots to bypass paywalls and access restricted content for the purpose of training generative AI business products. ## Global Legal Resistance The proposal faced immediate opposition from courts and regulators worldwide. Authorities in Brazil and Norway issued preliminary injunctions to block the terms, while the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority launched a formal investigation into whether Meta was leveraging its dominant market position to seize valuable data for AI training purposes. ## Publisher and Political Pushback News organizations and industry associations criticized the move as arrogant, arguing that replacing the word 'train' with 'develop' in the terms did not mitigate the threat to their intellectual property. In the United States, bipartisan pressure mounted as Senators Adam Schiff and Marsha Blackburn formally requested that Mark Zuckerberg withdraw the terms. ## Meta's Stance on Crawling Despite the pause, Meta maintains that its existing crawling practices remain unchanged and insists it would not use terms of service to circumvent robots.txt protocols. However, critics note that the company has failed to include specific, binding language in its revised terms that explicitly guarantees respect for these established site-owner preferences. ## Communication and Consultation Meta vice president Andy Stone stated the company cares deeply about partners and will not implement policy changes without full consultation with industry leaders. The company acknowledged that this process will likely extend beyond the November 20 deadline, necessitating the indefinite delay of the controversial updates to its commercial and advertising policies. ## Future Regulatory Outlook The indefinite delay marks a significant retreat for Meta amid intense scrutiny regarding data sovereignty and AI development. While current terms remain in effect, the company faces ongoing pressure to clarify its scraping mechanisms. Future updates will depend on the outcome of consultations with publishers and the resolution of pending international legal challenges. ## Sources covering this story - [Ars Technica - All content — Meta Indefinitely Pauses Controversial AI Training Terms Update](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/11/does-meta-think-we-cant-read-meta-abandons-sketchy-commercial-terms-update/) - [Mashable — Meta Indefinitely Pauses Controversial Web Scraping Policy Changes](https://mashable.com/tech/meta-terms-service-ai-scraping-businesses) --- _Summary written by Brifing from the original reporting. Copyright in the original article belongs to its publisher; read the full piece at the link above._