São Paulo decision puts the brakes on Meta on news used to train AI

On Tuesday (3), an injunction was granted that limits the use of journalistic materials by Meta, including to train artificial intelligence systems. The decision was signed by Guilherme Madeira Dezem, who works at the 44th Civil Court in São Paulo, according to Estadão.

The measure was obtained in an action by ANJ, Abert and Aner against Meta. According to Estadão, the order blocks Meta's new commercial conditions, whose application was scheduled for November 20th.

According to the report, the barred terms gave Meta the possibility of employing robots to scan press websites, extracting, saving and examining texts, images and recordings available there. The suspension only affects part of these terms.

In practical terms, the company is prohibited from collecting and using, without a license, material from affiliated vehicles, which includes AI training. The central point of the case is who can use journalistic material as input for artificial intelligence models and under what conditions.

For those who defend free markets and legal security, the dispute has two sides: on the one hand, the protection of content produced by newsrooms; on the other, the need for clear rules so that technology companies can plan investments in AI.

What changes for the investor

The immediate effect is uncertainty, not result. The injunction changes the calendar of rules that Meta had announced and, in theory, could make model training more expensive or delay if access to journalistic content starts to require authorization. The Estadão report does not provide figures on the financial impact. Monitoring the progress of the process, possible resources and the fate of the terms scheduled for November 20th is what separates risk reading from a simple guess.

Automatically translated from Portuguese.