Meta says it’ll probably delay its controversial new business terms again

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Meta does ‘not plan to make policy changes without a full consultation with industry groups and leaders.’

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Meta says it may push the implementation of its new business terms past November 20th as it faces backlash from publishers over concerns about AI training. In a post on X, Meta communications head Andy Stone said the company does “not plan to make policy changes without a full consultation with industry groups and leaders.”

The new business terms, which were supposed to take effect on October 30th, initially appeared to give Meta permission to train its AI models on the news sites that use Facebook and Instagram. Meta later changed its policies to remove language indicating that it could “train” its products on content scraped from these sites, but legal experts told Nieman Lab that the update still isn’t enough to rule out that possibility. Meta responded to these concerns by delaying the implementation of its terms until November 20th. Now, enforcement may be delayed indefinitely.

“We’ve heard publishers’ feedback on our proposed ads and business terms update,” Stone said. “We’re committed to getting this right, and as we expect this consultation could extend beyond November 20, in which case we’d delay implementation of the updated terms. Until then our existing terms remain in place.”

Along with pushback from the News/Media Alliance, lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle have spoken out about the new terms. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said the updated terms indicate Meta is “attempting to exploit American creators and businesses,” while Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) urged Meta to reverse the change.

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