Meta Delays Its New Business Terms Three Weeks After Publisher Pushback Over Scraping

On October 23, 2026, Meta said it is pushing back the effective date of its updated Commercial Terms and Self-Serve Ad Terms from October 30 to November 20, after a wave of pushback from news publishers and questions from regulators in Europe and the UK.

What the terms say

Nieman Lab first reported the terms on October 15. They would allow Meta to scrape websites “associated with” business accounts on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads, and virtually every news organization has at least one such account. On October 16, Meta removed the word “train” from the terms and limited future use of scraped content to “advertising and business products.” Legal experts told Nieman Lab and The Verge that the change does not rule out the material ending up in Meta’s AI tools. The terms were set to take effect October 30, with no way to opt out.

The pushback

On October 22, the News/Media Alliance, a trade group representing more than 2,000 US newspaper, magazine, and digital publishers, sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding that the company withdraw the crawling provision. The letter argues that publishers can’t practically block Meta’s crawlers without hurting their ability to promote content on its platforms. The World Association of News Publishers sent a similar letter the same day, and European press associations asked the European Commission to step in.

Meta’s response

“We are extending the effective date of our updated Commercial Terms and Self-Serve Ad Terms to November 20 to allow more time for us to explain to our partners and stakeholders what’s changing and what’s not,” a Meta spokesperson said, adding that content owners will still be able to use robots.txt to signal their preferences. Nieman Lab notes that, as of October 23, no version of the terms includes language about respecting robots.txt, and the only change is the date.

Regulators are watching

The European Commission said it welcomed the postponement and is committed to making sure Meta complies with EU law, including the Digital Markets Act. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said it had been in urgent discussions with Meta and will keep scrutinizing the terms.