Meta may delay its revised business terms for a second time, communications director Andy Stone said in a post on X, after publishers raised fresh objections over whether the rules let the company train AI models on their content.
The terms, covering Facebook and Instagram's Commercial Terms and Self-Serve Ad Terms, were originally due to take effect on October 30.
Meta pushed that date back once already, to 20 November, and Stone said the current consultation with publishers "could extend beyond November 20, in which case we'd delay implementation of the updated terms."
"We've heard publishers' feedback on our proposed ads and business terms update," Stone said. "We're committed to getting this right."
Meta had already stripped explicit references to "training" from the terms, but legal experts and publishers argue the surviving language, covering use of content to "provide, develop, improve, research and maintain" its products, still leaves room for AI-related scraping.
Meta has pointed to robots.txt controls as a way for publishers to block its crawlers, and says it needs to clarify how those crawlers work.
The dispute has drawn bipartisan criticism in Washington, with Senator Marsha Blackburn accusing Meta of "attempting to exploit American creators and businesses" and Senator Adam Schiff calling for the terms to be reversed.
It has also moved into the courts: a group of 10 Norwegian media organizations sued Meta over the terms days before Stone's latest comments, alleging they would let the company harvest journalism, photos and video, including paywalled material, for AI development.
Until any new terms take effect, Meta said its existing policies remain in place.
