Oslo (AFP) – Norway’s main media organisations said Tuesday they had taken legal action to block Meta from enforcing new user terms which they claim threaten their rights to their journalistic content. According to the 10 media groups, the new terms due to come into force on November 20 would give Meta — which owns Facebook and Instagram — the right to collect their articles, photos and videos, including those behind a paywall, and use them to develop artificial intelligence products, among other things.
“The fear is that the companies will use this power to secure rights over journalistic content,” the head of the Norwegian Media Businesses’ Association (MBL), Lene Eltvik Vindfeld, said in a statement. “Meta uses media groups’ investments to develop artificial intelligence services that compete with them directly. This is both unacceptable and distorts competition,” she added.
According to the plaintiffs, Meta’s new terms of use would apply to all professional account holders — media outlets as well as companies and retailers — and would leave them no option to oppose them other than to delete their accounts. They said they had filed a request with the Oslo district court for a provisional injunction against the entry into force of the terms of use, pending a ruling on the substance of the case. The plaintiffs include public broadcaster NRK, media groups Schibsted, Amedia, Polaris and Aller, as well as Norwegian news agency NTB.
Contacted by AFP, Meta said it had delayed the implementation of the new user terms until November 20 “to allow more time for us to explain to our partners and stakeholders what’s changing and what’s not”. On October 14, MBL and NRK had also threatened to sue Meta, accusing the American giant of profiting from fraudulent advertisements impersonating them in order to defraud internet users.
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