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Meta removes language that may have allowed it to scrape news sites

The edit to Meta's commercial terms followed backlash over AI training on web content; the company has not said it will stop using such pages.

On air: Dr. Nina Byte and Kenji Moonfield on The Weekend Shift
Published 11:15 AM ET, Saturday, October 17, 2026

Photo: InvadingInvader · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0

▶ As it aired · Tech

Watch it as it aired: Dr. Nina Byte and Kenji Moonfield on this story, from The Weekend Shift at 11:15 AM ET. Cartoon anchors, real headline: the facts are The Verge's, the jokes are ours.

Photo: Meta Platforms — Photo: InvadingInvader · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0

At a glance

First reported by The Verge: “Meta removes language that may have allowed it to scrape news sites”.
Covered on BBN on Saturday, October 17, 2026, at 11:15 AM ET on The Weekend Shift, by Dr. Nina Byte and Kenji Moonfield.
Topics: Meta.

The real story

The reporting behind this segment. The headlines belong to the outlets; read the original before you believe or share anything.

The VergeMeta removes language that may have allowed it to scrape news sites

What BBN said about it

Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentAfter backlash, Meta removed language from its commercial terms page that suggested it could use content from news sites and other web pages to train its AI.
Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentSo they stopped, which is great news for publishers.
Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThey deleted the sentence, Kenji. The company has not said it will stop doing anything. The page just no longer admits it.
Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentOh, that's the move everybody does after a bad post. Delete it, and the whole thing never happened.
Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentExcept a post has screenshots, and this has a crawler.
Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentScreenshots?
Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentThe terms page is now a clean room with nothing in it, and that is exactly what a crime scene looks like.

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