European publishers urge EU and UK regulators to suspend Meta's revised business terms over AI scraping fears
The European Publishers Council (EPC) sent a letter on Monday to EU competition chief Teresa Ribera and tech chief Henna Virkkunen asking them to suspend Meta's new business terms, due to take effect on 30 October, and to assess whether they comply with EU law, POLITICO reported. Publishers fear the terms could let Meta copy content from their websites for use in AI products; Meta disputed that reading, and after criticism revised the wording on Friday evening to remove the word "train", saying the rules cover only its advertising and business tools and are meant to gather product information from shopping sites. UK publishers have told the Competition and Markets Authority they cannot realistically refuse the terms, and CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell said the regulator had asked Meta to explain the changes and planned to meet the company on Wednesday, while a European Commission spokesperson said Meta must comply with EU rules including the Digital Markets Act.
The standoff adds to Meta's ongoing conflicts with European publishers over how it uses their content and whether it should pay for it, and publishers argue that once content is copied into AI systems the process may be impossible to reverse.
Europe’s biggest news publishers are asking regulators in the EU and UK to stop Meta from introducing new business terms that they fear could allow the company to copy content from their websites for use in AI products. The changes are due to take effect on 30 October.
The European Publishers Council (EPC) sent a letter on Monday to EU competition chief Teresa Ribera and tech chief Henna Virkkunen, asking them to suspend the changes and assess whether they comply with EU law, POLITICO reported.
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