Major European media companies have urged Brussels and London officials to stop Meta from introducing new terms that they say allow it to copy publishers' websites for AI construction. This reaction, which began in the United States, has quickly spread across Europe.
Requests from European Officials
In a letter sent to officials on Monday, the European Publishers Council, which includes Axel Springer’s owner, has asked Teresa Ribeiro, the President of the European Union's Competition Commission, and Henna Virkkunen, the Head of Technology, to compel Meta to postpone these terms before October 30.
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This group has requested Brussels to review these terms in light of EU copyright and competition laws and has asked for an emergency meeting with teams from both commissions.
Concerns of British Publishers
The UK Competition Authority has also entered the fray. British publishers have complained to the authority that Meta's dominance is such that they are forced to accept its terms. The head of the authority, Sarah Cardell, told British lawmakers that they have asked Meta for explanations regarding these changes and will meet with the company on Wednesday.
The new terms affect businesses that use Meta's tools to manage Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, or advertisements, impacting nearly all newsrooms.
Meta's Response to Criticism
On Friday, Andy Stone, Meta's Head of Communications, responded to Nieman Lab's report on the social network X, stating that the report is inaccurate and that there are no changes in how Meta uses web bots. Stone added that the purpose of this update is to allow Meta to extract accurate product information from shopping websites for advertisements, not to copy news websites.
However, publishers believe that these terms allow Meta to access their content for free, while other AI companies pay for licenses. The European Publishers Council has noted in a letter to officials that the changes announced by Meta will not affect this situation.
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