Meta Delays New Commercial Terms After Publisher and Advertiser Criticism

Meta will postpone updated commercial and self-serve advertising terms until November 20 while it responds to concerns that the rules could broaden its ability to use publisher content for AI services.

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Oct 24, 2026 - 11:08

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Meta corporate-rebrand artwork, published in 2021 (file image). Image source: Meta. https://about.fb.com/news/2021/10/facebook-company-is-now-meta/

Meta Delays New Commercial Terms After Publisher and Advertiser Criticism

Company says it needs more time to explain changes to partners

Meta Platforms will delay the start of updated commercial and self-serve advertising terms until November 20, the company said, after publishers and digital advertisers raised concerns about the rules. The terms had been scheduled to take effect on October 30.

Complaints about the changes have reached antitrust authorities in the European Union and the United Kingdom. Publishers and advertisers said the terms could give Meta a broad right to use their content for artificial-intelligence services. Meta has rejected that interpretation.

A Meta spokesperson said the extension would give the company more time to explain what is changing and what is not. Meta also plans to clarify how it uses web crawlers and to make clear that content owners can continue using robots.txt, a text file that communicates preferences to crawlers and AI bots.

The European Commission, the EU’s antitrust watchdog, welcomed the delay. The commission also said it had requested information from companies that had not yet published summaries of the data used to train their AI models. The move could help Meta address the concerns before regulators decide whether further action is needed.

The European Publishers Council maintained its criticism. The group said operating a business page or advertising a subscription should not automatically grant general rights over a publisher’s website and archive. It argued that uses beyond the specific service requested should require separate, express permission from the relevant rights holder.

The dispute reflects a wider conflict between publishers and AI companies over the use of online material to train large language models. Publishers are seeking clearer contractual safeguards, while technology companies have continued to contest claims that their practices unlawfully exploit copyrighted content.