Major publishers call on EC to halt Meta news ‘scrape’

The European Commission is being urged to come down on Meta like a ton of bricks following an update to the tech giant’s new commercial terms that will allow the it to scrape content from news sites and use that content to train the company’s AI products.

The European Publishers Council (EPC) says the update, which comes into effect on October 30, will impact any company with a Meta account.

Of particular concern is the extension to content “made available through your or users’ use” of Meta’s products and services.

The organisation claims this wording raises the prospect that Meta could claim authorisation to scrape and use publishers’ content simply because a member of the public has shared a link. A user sharing a news article cannot confer rights they do not hold.

EPC executive director Angela Mills Wade said: “Meta appears to be using its commercial terms to claim sweeping permission to scrape publishers’ websites and use their journalism for AI. Maintaining a business account or having a reader share a link should never be treated as a blanket licence to exploit a publisher’s content.

“Journalism requires investment, expertise and accountability. Meta cannot simply write itself permission to take that work. Publishers must be able to decide whether and how their journalism is used, and negotiate fair payment. Burying such far-reaching claims in platform terms is no substitute for consent.”

The EPC maintains that publishers have a presence on Facebook and Instagram to reach audiences and support their businesses.

However, it argues that this activity should not be made conditional on granting what it brands “sweeping rights” to exploit the journalism on their own websites. Nor should participation in a platform’s distribution services be treated as informed agreement to uses of content that may compete with, or substitute for, the publisher’s own offering, the EPC insists.

Mills added: “The provisions also raise broader questions about platform power. Where publishers depend on major platforms to reach readers, their practical ability to reject expansive content-use conditions may be severely constrained. We therefore believe these changes warrant urgent scrutiny across the Commission’s competition, digital and copyright responsibilities.”

The EPC is writing formally to executive vice-presidents Teresa Ribera and Henna Virkkunen demanding that they scrutinise these terms urgently, including their implications for copyright, contractual fairness and abuse of market power.

Mills concluded: “Publishers must retain the right to decide whether, how and on what terms their journalism is used by AI companies. Opt-in, not opt-out. Licensing, not appropriation.”

Related stories
Meta $18bn fine: Watershed moment or damp squib?
Decision Marketing at 15: Can anyone crush the giants?
PwC: Act now so that data and tech spend gets results
Gartner: Industry must grasp ‘AI nettle’ or wither on vine