Czech publishers ask Brussels to probe Meta over AI content scraping

Four Czech publishing associations have asked the European Commission to review the new terms of Meta. In their view, the disputed clauses allow Meta to automatically harvest content from outside websites and to pay no licensing fees for it.

The statement was signed by the Internet Development Association, the Czech Publishers' Union, the publishers' rights-management organization and the Association of Online Publishers. “The disputed provisions give Meta broad powers to mine content automatically from external websites linked to its services, without any obligation to pay licensing fees,” the document says.

What changes for websites

The earlier rules, the associations explain, covered content that users and companies themselves publish on Meta's services. The new version also affects publishers' own websites: it permits automated crawling, indexing, copying and re-retrieval of materials from their domains and addresses, including editorial articles, archives, photos and videos. “Content obtained this way can then be distributed using artificial intelligence technologies,” the authors of the statement warn.

What the publishers want

The publishers believe such powers go beyond what is necessary for the ordinary operation of a social network, especially when accepting the terms is the price of access to a key “gatekeeper” platform. This approach, they say, may conflict with competition law.

They call on Meta to limit its powers to content that a publisher has knowingly provided for a specific use on its platforms. The European Commission is asked to immediately examine compliance with European rules and to consider temporarily suspending the disputed provisions.

Once content has been collected and processed on a mass scale, the publishers argue, restoring the previous situation would be practically impossible. In parallel, the Czech associations are preparing a legal assessment of Meta's actions for the Office for the Protection of Competition and other competent authorities.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz