{"slug": "meta-promises-to-consult-publishers-before-confirming-new-terms-of-service-after", "title": "Meta promises to consult publishers before confirming new terms of service after widespread backlash", "summary": "Meta Platforms Inc. pledged on Wednesday to consult news industry groups before finalizing new terms of service after publishers objected that the terms could let Meta use their content to train its artificial intelligence models. Meta communications vice-president Andy Stone said on X, \"We do not plan to make policy changes without a full consultation with industry groups and leaders,\" after Meta pushed the effective date from the end of October to Nov. 20 and removed an earlier clause allowing web crawlers to scrape business users' sites to \"develop, improve, research, train\" Meta products. The World Association of News Publishers, representing 20,000 outlets in 120 countries, called for a \"credible\" consultation and terms that let every publisher refuse permission without penalties to access, distribution or referral.", "body_md": "[Meta Platforms Inc.](https://financialpost.com/tag/meta-platforms-inc/) pledged on Wednesday to consult news industry groups before finalizing new terms of service that have sparked a [backlash among publishers](https://financialpost.com/technology/canadian-news-publishers-meta-scrap-new-terms-of-service-ai) concerned the tech company could use their content to train its [artificial intelligence](https://financialpost.com/tag/artificial-intelligence/) models. \n\n\"We've heard publishers' feedback on our proposed ads and business terms update,\" Meta's vice-president of communications Andy Stone [said](https://x.com/andymstone/status/2115470598809735602?s=20) on X on Wednesday. \n\n\"We do not plan to make policy changes without a full consultation with industry groups and leaders,\" Stone said.\n\nIn mid-October, the San Francisco tech company announced updates to its commercial terms of service, which initially included a clause allowing it to use tools such as web crawlers to scrape content from sites associated with its business users to \"develop, improve, research, train … Meta company products, services and features.\"\n\nMedia and digital rights groups pushed back against the changes, compelling Meta, which owns social and messaging platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, to remove the language. Advocacy group Movement for an Open Web described the company's proposed terms and conditions as anti-competitive.\n\n\"Many businesses effectively have no choice but to use Meta's services and these conditions would force them to sign away the rights to their digital content with no means of opting out,\" said co-founder Tim Cowen in a statement last week.\n\nMeta initially said its new commercial terms would take effect at the end of October, but pushed the date to Nov. 20 after the outcry. Meta's Stone said the discussions with industry could delay the implementation date again.\n\nMeta's latest move shows it is feeling a \"massive chorus of pressure\" from publishers worldwide, said Paul Deegan, president of News Media Canada, an industry body that represents some of the country's largest news companies, including Torstar Corp, The Globe and Mail Inc. and Postmedia Network Canada Corp., which publishes the Financial Post.\n\n\"They (Meta) need to get out of delay, deny (and) defend mode and do the right thing,\" Deegan said. \"That means dropping these draconian changes to their terms of service.\"\n\nMeta did not specify which industry groups and leaders it plans to have consultations with, and News Media Canada did not confirm whether it is meeting with Meta.\n\nThe World Association of News Publishers, which represents 20,000 news and magazine outlets in 120 countries, wrote a letter to Meta on Thursday calling for a \"credible\" consultation and revised terms that \"must not require publishers to grant permission to collect or reuse their content (while) every publisher … must be able to refuse permission without penalties affecting access, distribution or referral.\"", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-promises-to-consult-publishers-before-confirming-new-terms-of-service-after", "canonical_source": "https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/meta-promises-consult-publishers-confirming-154325890.html", "published_at": "2026-10-29 15:43:25+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-29 16:20:49.371536+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["Meta Platforms Inc.", "Andy Stone", "Movement for an Open Web", "Tim Cowen", "News Media Canada", "Paul Deegan", "World Association of News Publishers", "Facebook"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-promises-to-consult-publishers-before-confirming-new-terms-of-service-after", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-promises-to-consult-publishers-before-confirming-new-terms-of-service-after.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-promises-to-consult-publishers-before-confirming-new-terms-of-service-after.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/meta-promises-to-consult-publishers-before-confirming-new-terms-of-service-after.jsonld"}}