U.S. Senator Says Meta Commercial Terms Could Harm Businesses and Creators

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn criticized Meta Platforms’ planned update to its commercial terms on October 23, 2026, saying the language could harm American businesses, creators and publishers. Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, said the changes could give Meta broad authority to collect content from websites linked to Facebook and Instagram business accounts.

Implementation delayed

Meta said earlier on Friday that it would delay the change from October 30 to November 20 while addressing concerns from publishers and digital advertisers. Complaints about the terms have also reached antitrust authorities in the European Union and the United Kingdom.

Publishers and advertisers have argued that the wording could give Meta extensive rights to use content for artificial-intelligence services. Blackburn said Meta’s revisions removed an explicit reference to AI training but still appeared to authorize broad scraping and the development of business products using collected material.

Meta’s response

Meta rejected that interpretation. The company said the revised terms apply only to its ads and business products, do not change how it uses web crawlers and do not create new rights to override website preferences. It also said content owners can continue using robots.txt to signal their choices.

The dispute reflects a wider conflict between content owners and AI companies over permission, copyright and the use of online material. Blackburn called for Meta to withdraw the update and negotiate with creators and publishers. Meta’s delayed implementation gives the company additional time to respond to the concerns.

Sources

Reuters: Senator says planned Meta commercial terms update could harm U.S. businesses