Grimmelmann criticizes the breadth of Meta's terms
James GrimmelmannProfessor of digital and information law
Grimmelmann says he was quoted in Nieman Lab and calls Meta's new scraping terms 'absurdly broad'.
“Meta's new scraping terms really are absurdly broad.”
Original post
Original post

Where this statement fits
Meta defends commercial scraping terms; Grimmelmann calls them overbroad
Meta's proposed commercial terms authorize collection from websites connected to business users and training uses of that content. Meta says the update consolidates existing terms without changing its crawling practices. James Grimmelmann and other legal experts question the breadth of the permission.
Source and context
Original post
About this source
Grimmelmann endorses his criticism of the terms while sharing the Nieman Lab report in which he is quoted.
Original post
About this source
The preview authorizes automated collection from websites connected to commercial users and use of that content to train Meta products. Continued commercial use after notice binds users to updated terms.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
Grimmelmann says he is quoted in the Nieman Lab article linked in his post.
After the quotation
He says journalists are not taking 'crazy pills' about the scope of the terms.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
He calls Meta's scraping terms 'absurdly broad'. This explicitly criticizes the terms under scrutiny.
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More from this case
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“content owners can still manage how their content is accessed by using robots.txt.”Read statement
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- Grimmelmann criticizes the breadth of Meta's terms
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The Dispute Index. "Grimmelmann criticizes the breadth of Meta's terms". First published: 2026-10-16. Last updated: 2026-10-16. https://disputeindex.com/events/5811-grimmelmann-says-he-was-quoted-in-nieman-lab