Publishers Ask EU and UK Regulators to Suspend Meta’s New AI Content Terms

A publisher and advertiser group says Meta’s October 30 commercial terms could let it use web content for AI services without an opt-out.

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Oct 23, 2026 - 12:13

Oct 23, 2026 - 12:36

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Meta company signage with a passerby (file photo). Image source: Politico / Getty Images; photographer not stated in extracted source metadata. https://www.politico.eu/article/publishers-press-brussels-and-london-to-stop-metas-new-ai-terms/

Publishers Ask EU and UK Regulators to Suspend Meta’s New AI Content Terms

Digital advertisers and publishers have asked European Union and United Kingdom competition regulators to suspend Meta’s new commercial terms before they take effect on October 30. The Movement for an Open Web said it complained to the European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority, alleging that the terms could give Meta broad rights to use website content for its artificial-intelligence services.

What the group alleges

The advocacy group said businesses may have little practical choice but to use Meta’s advertising and business products. It argues that the revised conditions could force them to sign away rights to digital content without an effective opt-out, allowing Meta to scrape material and use it to build AI-powered services that compete with content owners.

Tim Cowen, a co-founder of the group, called the terms anti-competitive. The complaint seeks interim measures, which require applicants to show that alleged conduct could cause serious and irreparable damage.

Meta disputes the interpretation

Meta said the consolidated crawling terms apply only to its ads and business products and that the company clarified this in the terms. A spokesperson said the changes do not alter how Meta uses web crawlers and do not give it new rights that override robots.txt preferences.

The distinction matters because the dispute involves both contractual language and the use of automated crawlers. A robots.txt file can signal a site owner’s preferences, but regulators will need to assess whether those signals, Meta’s products and the new terms interact in a way that raises competition concerns.

Regulators are reviewing the issue

The CMA said it met Meta to obtain more details and was engaged in urgent discussions. The European Commission had not immediately responded to emailed requests for comment. The complaint follows similar concerns from the European Publishers Council and German publishing groups.

Illustrative file photo of a smartphone with social media apps; not a screenshot or event involved in the report. Photo: Nathan Dumlao / Unsplash. Unsplash License; cropped to 16:9. Image source; license.