Ten Norwegian media organisations have asked Oslo District Court to block Meta’s new commercial terms, arguing that they could allow the technology company to collect articles, photographs and videos from news websites, including material behind paywalls.
The application for an interim injunction, reported on 27 October, comes ahead of the terms’ planned introduction on 20 November 2026. The publishers want the court to suspend the changes while their legality is examined. The request does not amount to a court finding that Meta has acted unlawfully.
The organisations are public broadcaster NRK, TV 2, Schibsted, Amedia, Polaris Media, Aller Media, Dagens Næringsliv, Mentor Medier, news agency NTB and Hordaland Folkeblad, according to Journalisten and Norwegian news agency NTB.
Why Norwegian publishers are challenging Meta’s terms
The dispute concerns commercial terms for business accounts on Facebook and Instagram. The media companies fear that Meta could use the changes to gain broad rights over journalism published on their websites, potentially including material used to train artificial intelligence systems. This is the publishers’ interpretation of the terms, not an established legal conclusion.
The publishers have three main demands. They want Meta to respect technical restrictions on automated collection of content, including instructions in a website’s robots.txt file. They also want use of journalism for AI training to require separate voluntary agreements with payment. Finally, they insist that media outlets refusing permission must not face reduced visibility or traffic on Facebook and Instagram.
Guro Valland, editor and managing director of Bergensavisen, said the company should seek permission and agreements before using publishers’ journalism.
If Meta wants to use our journalism, it must ask permission and enter into agreements. And it must respect a no.
Her comments were translated from Norwegian as reported in Amedia’s announcement.
The new conditions were postponed until November
Meta had originally planned to introduce the changes on 30 October but postponed their implementation until 20 November. The Norwegian publishers are seeking a temporary order before that date, while the legality of the conditions is assessed.
Lene Eltvik Vindfeld, chair of the Norwegian Media Businesses’ Association (Mediebedriftenes Landsforening), accused Meta of abusing a dominant position and said the matter needed to be examined under Norwegian law, according to Dagsavisen. The competition-law allegation has not been established by a court.
The immediate question is whether Oslo District Court will grant the temporary injunction. More broadly, the case concerns whether publishers can continue using major social platforms without giving up control over the reporting, photographs and videos they produce for their own sites.
