Meta's new commercial terms: what Australian marketers should check
Before 30 October, confirm the wording, review the website permissions and get clear answers from Meta.
Meta’s revised Commercial Terms are scheduled to take effect on 30 October 2026 and apply to covered commercial use in Australia. That includes advertising and managing business Pages, with exceptions where separate product terms apply.
The collection permission reaches websites associated with your products or services, including content you have never uploaded to Meta. In the English (US) preview checked on 19 October, the clause is tied to advertising and business products, plus product integrity and security. The earlier explicit training sentence is gone; that does not establish a blanket ban on AI use.
English (UK) still displayed the earlier wording. This may be a temporary oversight. You can compare versions using the language selector at the foot of Meta’s preview page. This discrepancy does not establish different permissions by country.
What to do before 30 October
- Save the terms you review. Record the date and selected language. Share the copy with your legal adviser and whoever owns the Meta relationship, including your agency.
- Map the content and permissions. Review the websites, landing pages, catalogues and other material associated with your business. Check what you own and what you license from others. Ask your website team to review crawler controls alongside the contractual review.
- Contact your Meta representative. Express your concern and ask for written answers: which version applies to your business, which website content Meta intends to collect, how it will use it, including any AI uses, and whether you can refuse those uses without losing services. Ask how website crawler preferences interact with the terms. If you have no representative, raise the questions through business support.
- Assign someone to make the decision. Bring marketing, legal and your website lead together before the effective date. Section 7 treats continued commercial use after notice as acceptance. A request for clarification should not be treated as pausing that mechanism.
My recommendation is to make this a deliberate business decision. Routine campaign activity should not be the only thing deciding your position on website content rights.
For the broader argument, read Meta wants your website in the bargain.