Meta Pauses Its Controversial Terms Update After Publishers, Courts and Regulators Push Back

Meta has paused planned updates to its terms that would have allowed it to crawl any website linked to a business account on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Threads — including news sites — after publishers revolted and regulators and courts pushed back.

The changes will not take effect on November 20, 2026, the company said on Friday. "We're pausing the changes as we continue to engage with stakeholders and take our time to get this right. In the meantime, our existing terms remain in effect," Meta said.

The proposed terms would have allowed Meta to scrape content from any website connected to a business account, a power publishers saw as a direct threat to their business. The backlash was swift and global. Courts in Norway issued a preliminary injunction against the changes, courts in Brazil imposed a ban backed by daily fines, and Britain's Competition and Markets Authority opened a formal investigation.

In the United States, Senators Adam Schiff and Marsha Blackburn wrote letters in protest, raising concerns about what the terms would mean for publishers and for the use of their content to train AI systems.

Meta pulled the preview link for the new terms on November 5, a day before the pause was announced. The company had already delayed the same terms once before, in October, after an earlier round of criticism.

Pausing is not cancelling. Meta said consultations with stakeholders continue, and it has set no new date for the changes to take effect. Publishers, meanwhile, will be watching closely to see whether the terms return in a different form — or whether the pause becomes permanent.

The episode shows how far the balance of power has shifted. A terms update that would once have gone through quietly now draws injunctions, investigations and letters from senators within days.

Sources

• Reuters — Meta pauses planned terms updates, keeps existing rules in place