By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms will delay the implementation of updated commercial terms to November 20 from October 30 so it can address concerns from publishers and digital advertisers, the US tech company said on Friday, in a move that could stave off potential regulatory action.
Meta's move followed complaints by publishers and digital advertisers to EU and UK antitrust authorities about its new commercial terms, which they said would give the company an unlimited right
to use their content for its AI services. Meta has rejected the claims.
"We are extending the effective date of our updated Commercial Terms and Self-Serve Ad Terms to 20 November to allow more time for us to explain to our partners and stakeholders what's changing and what's not," a Meta spokesperson said in an email.
The company will explain how Meta uses web crawlers, and the fact that content owners will still be able to use robots.txt to signal preferences, the spokesperson said.
The EU antitrust watchdog said it welcomed the delay amid discussions with the company on the proposed commercial terms.
It said it had sent requests for information to companies that have not published summaries about the data used to train their models.
Publishers worldwide are ramping up their fight with AI companies that use their content without permission to train large language models, underscoring the clash between copyright owners and those citing fair-use arguments.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Ros Russell and Jan Harvey)
