OPINION: Meta’s new rules put local news at risk

For years, local newspapers have battled the consequences of big technology companies controlling how their reporting reaches readers and how advertising dollars flow. As first discovered by Nieman Lab through its investigative reporting, on Oct. 15, 2026, Meta announced that it was revising its commercial terms with provisions that appear to give it broad rights to access, scrape, collect and use content from publishers’ websites in connection with Meta’s products without the publisher’s specific permission or compensation. The big technology companies set their own rules for reaching audiences through their services — and change those rules to suit their own businesses, often to the detriment of the organizations that are providing the content. Meta’s proposed commercial terms raise a challenge as AI changes how people receive news.

This excerpt comes from the named source. Read the original for the full reporting.