Business accounts will consent to Meta scraping their websites Starting Oct. 30

Commenters focused on Meta’s new commercial terms that would let business accounts authorize scraping of their sites. Several raised legal doubts: amluto and edmundsauto asked how a business can license content it doesn’t own or that it licensed from third parties, and SomeHacker44 and free_bip questioned whether courts would enforce such clickwrap clauses. Others suggested different legal takes - olalonde argued scraping might not require consent, Centigonal mocked Meta’s creativity with terms, and sandeepkd suspected Meta is already scraping and is merely formalizing legal cover. garbawarb and ChrisArchitect linked the move to Meta’s Muse shopping agents, while phyzome and Centigonal flagged the striking phrasing and audacity of the change.

Practical and political reactions diverged. VladVladikoff and others described blocking Meta crawlers and alleged deceptive user-agent behavior, with Vlad saying small businesses often lack the tools to notice scraping. thayne and sailfast warned of business departures and potential antitrust implications if advertisers are coerced, while gumby and what discussed account misclassification and the problem of binding online agreements. techmunky even suggested insider resistance as a tactic. Overall commenters split between legal skepticism about enforceability, pragmatic efforts to block scrapers, and broader moral and regulatory outrage directed at Meta.