Ten Norwegian media organizations have asked a court to pause Meta’s revised business terms before they take effect, challenging rules they say could expose publisher-funded journalism to collection and possible AI use.
Amedia said Oct. 27 that it and nine other groups sought a provisional injunction from the Oslo District Court while it considers whether the terms are lawful. The applicants are NRK, TV 2, Schibsted, Amedia, Polaris, Aller, DN, Mentor Medier, NTB and Hordaland Folkeblad.
Meta’s updated contract permits automated systems to retrieve material from websites linked to a business and check those sites for changes. Advertising and business products are listed as purposes for the collection. The revised clause no longer explicitly refers to “training.”
The publishers say the rules could cover articles, photographs and videos on their websites, including work behind paywalls. They argue Meta could use journalism they financed in services that compete with them, while media companies bear the costs of producing the material and responsibility for its editorial content.
The groups want Meta to recognize restrictions that publishers communicate through robots.txt, make separate voluntary agreements for AI uses of journalism and pay for such use. They also want assurances that publishers who decline would not lose visibility, traffic or access to Meta’s platforms.
Meta told Ars Technica that the terms address advertising and business products and said, “This is not about scraping news sites.” The company also told the outlet that content owners can signal crawler preferences through robots.txt. The revised terms do not mention the file.
The effective date is Nov. 20, moved from Oct. 30. Reuters reported that Meta said the delay would give it more time to explain the changes to partners and stakeholders.
In a separate case, France’s competition authority ordered Meta in July to resume negotiations with French press groups over related-rights payments. The Norwegian publishers’ request concerns Meta’s business terms. Those terms are scheduled to take effect Nov. 20.
