EANA calls on Meta to remove the website-crawling clause from its new Commercial Terms

The European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) joins publishers, broadcasters and other media organisations and associations across Europe and beyond in calling on Meta to remove the website-crawling provision in its new Commercial Terms, and to replace it with terms that respect copyright. The postponing of the implementation of the terms until November 20th should lead to genuine dialogue and coherent solutions that will not force news media organisations off Meta's platforms. 

"This is not only a news agency issue", said EANA Secretary General Alexandru Giboi. “These new terms will have damaging effects across the entire news media ecosystem. Meta would have the content of every news media organisation that uses Meta's platforms served on a platter. That means journalists worldwide would practically work for Meta. Not to mention smaller media outlets, that are already struggling enough. Our content is not only what funds our business, it's a lifeline for communities to have access to trustworthy information, and it costs money to produce. It's nonsense that Meta considers news media can just give that away. If trustworthy news media organisations are pushed off Meta's platforms where a lot of the public conversation takes place, the space they leave will for sure not stay empty. It will be filled by bad actors with unverified and manipulative content. We are open to engaging in constructive dialogue with Meta and with all platforms on licensing models for the use of news content."

EANA sees news media organisations, including among its own members, opposing this move by Meta and fully understands and supports their position. No media organisation should have to choose between reaching its audience and protecting its rights. The fact that this choice is being forced on the news media is in itself a clearest sign that these terms are not right.

Any future terms should include a binding commitment to honour robots.txt and other machine-readable rights reservations, and treat any access to journalistic content as a separate, opt-in, licensed and remunerated arrangement.

We also urge the European Commission and national competition and media authorities to act in light of EU copyright, competition and digital markets rules before the terms enter into force. 

About EANA: The European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) was founded on 21 August 1956 in Strasbourg. Today it brings together 33 member agencies across Europe, serving as a forum for cooperation, knowledge exchange, and the advancement of news agency journalism. EANA is headquartered in Bern, Switzerland. For more information about EANA, visitwww.newsalliance.org.  

Media Contact for EANA: Alexandru Giboi - secretarygeneral@newsalliance.org