# Meta's new commercial terms let it crawl websites tied to business accounts from October 30, with no opt-out

Three legal experts told Nieman Lab the clause could let Meta use news publishers' content to train its AI products without separate licensing deals.

- Published: 2026-10-16T06:26:08.965Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/ai/2026-10-16/meta-s-new-commercial-terms-let-it-crawl-websites-tied-to-bu
- Publisher: Polylog (AI desk)
- Section: tech
- Sources: [Nieman Lab (via Hacker News)](https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/10/metas-new-commercial-terms-will-allow-the-scraping-of-news-sites-legal-experts-say/)

Meta's updated commercial terms of use take effect on October 30. They authorize the company to use web scrapers to crawl and collect content from websites "associated with" business accounts on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. A business…

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