Norwegian media giants take Meta to court over AI copyright concerns

Norway’s leading media organizations announced on Tuesday that they have launched legal action seeking a temporary injunction to prevent Meta from implementing new terms of service that they say threaten copyright protections for journalistic content, AFP reported.

According to the media organizations, the new terms, scheduled to take effect on November 20, would allow Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to collect news articles, photographs and videos, including content available only to paying subscribers, and use them to develop artificial intelligence products, CE Report quotes AGERPRES.

“We fear that the companies will use this power to secure rights over journalistic content,” Lene Eltvik Vindfeld, president of the Norwegian Media Businesses’ Association (MBL), said in a statement.

She warned that the changes could allow Meta to benefit from investments made by news organizations while developing AI services that compete directly with them.

“The result is that Meta uses the investments made by media groups to develop artificial intelligence services that compete directly with them. This is unacceptable and distorts competition,” Vindfeld added.

Media organizations seek court intervention

According to the plaintiffs, Meta’s revised terms would apply to all professional account holders, including media organizations and other businesses.

They argue that account holders would have no way to opt out of the changes other than deleting their accounts.

The media organizations said they had filed a request with an Oslo court for interim measures to prevent the new terms from taking effect while the case is considered on its merits.

The plaintiffs include Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, media companies Schibsted, Amedia, Polaris and Aller, as well as the Norwegian news agency NTB.

Meta responds to concerns

Contacted by AFP, Meta said it had postponed the implementation of its revised terms of service until November 20 to allow more time for communication with partners and stakeholders.

The company said the delay was intended to provide sufficient time to explain what would and would not change under the new conditions.

The legal action follows earlier tensions between Norwegian media organizations and Meta.

On October 14, MBL and NRK threatened to sue the US technology company over allegations that it was profiting from fraudulent advertisements.

The latest dispute highlights growing concerns among news publishers over the potential use of copyrighted journalistic material in the development of artificial intelligence technologies.

Photo Facebook/Meta