Updated: Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, has raised a firestorm in the media world with new commercial terms that appeared to give it broad authorization to scrape users’ web pages for product development and AI training. News coverage originated from a tip from The Steampunk Explorer.
Holy shit! I thought this just applied to Whatsapp, but, no, it’s is literally all your stuff anywhere on the web:
The only question isn’t how broadly or specifically the provisions in the new agreement will be interpreted but where are businesses going to move to? because this is absolutely a red line for any creative business.
That does not seem legally binding to me at all. At least it‘s in no way plausible that using one service could grand them ownership of your private information or intellectual properties anywhere on the web. I mean I am no lawyer but this is just asking to get sued big time on Meta‘s part.
There is nothing plausible about our laws in the US. Our court precedents are often in open contempt of the Constitution and our laws in service of the rich.
The courts were captured via the federalist society, decades back and it’s getting worse. Part of the terms are that you can’t sue and instead can only use binding arbitration of their choosing, the supreme court officially blessed this, formerly illegal, maybe ten or so years back.
Edit: Wording for clarity
Honestly, any “creative business” that still does business through Mark Zuckerberg should have corrected themselves years ago. The next best time is today.
With these new terms, any creative business left on Facebook and IG needs to be called out for agreeing to Meta’s terms. This is the line artists can’t pass. Staying on Meta is scab behavior.
Doing business with Meta at all should be a reputational liability.