Brazil court blocks Meta from training AI on news content

A São Paulo court has barred Meta from collecting and using Brazilian news publishers' content to train its artificial intelligence, granting a preliminary injunction to three media associations in a lawsuit against the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Judge Guilherme Madeira Dezem of São Paulo's 44th Civil Court issued the order on Tuesday, November 3, according to Valor International. The injunction suspends provisions of Meta's new Commercial Terms that were due to take effect on November 20 and bars the unauthorized collection and use of content produced by outlets represented by the three associations, including for developing and training AI systems.

The judge set a daily fine of R$1 million (roughly $180,000) for non-compliance, capped at R$100 million, and ordered Meta to keep the accounts, pages and tools of the affiliated outlets fully operational, without blocks, restrictions or penalties, if they refuse to accept the terms.

The injunction is preliminary, not a final judgment, and the court has not decided the substance of the case. The associations' claims are allegations. Meta declined to comment on the ruling when contacted by Valor, which reported the decision.

The case was brought by the National Newspaper Association (ANJ), the Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters (Abert) and the National Association of Magazine Publishers (Aner). In a statement, the ANJ said the new terms "would allow the company to use automated programs to access, copy, store and analyze news reports, photographs, videos and other content published on news organizations' websites," and that the authorization would extend to material published outside Meta's platforms, including copyrighted works. The association added that the rules made continued use of the platforms conditional on accepting the terms.

In a joint statement, the three associations called the ruling an initial victory for intellectual property rights and the sustainability of professional journalism. "The injunction is a very positive sign that there are limits to the abuse of economic power by a major digital platform," said ANJ executive president Marcelo Rech, a journalist. "The Brazilian judiciary is breaking new ground in protecting the rights of thousands of media outlets represented by the three associations," he added.

The Brazilian ruling follows a similar decision in Norway, where the Oslo District Court blocked the same terms on October 28. Ten Norwegian media groups, including public broadcaster NRK, the media groups Schibsted, Amedia, Polaris and Aller, and the news agency NTB, challenged the changes, arguing the provisions would give Meta the right to collect articles, photographs and videos, including content behind paywalls, AFP reported. That case was decided on an emergency basis, without hearing Meta, and the order stands until a definitive ruling on the terms' legality.

The São Paulo court found indications of copyright infringement and abusive contractual terms. According to heise online, the order described requiring media companies to make their copyrighted material available for free, essentially as a 'toll' for continuing to be present on the platforms, as an obvious abuse of the law. Ground News, drawing on AFP's reporting, said the judge found the harm would be irreversible once the content was used for training.

The legal challenge sits inside a broader push by Brazil's media and creative industries to set rules for copyrighted material in AI systems. In December 2025, ANJ, Abert and Aner, alongside organizations representing the music industry and copyright holders, sent formal notices to Meta and the Brazilian subsidiaries of Amazon Web Services, Apple, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, seeking agreements on authorizing copyrighted content for AI.

The dispute has moved quickly since the Brazilian ruling. On November 5, Meta said it had paused the terms indefinitely. "These updates are now paused and will not take effect on November 20, 2026," the company wrote in an update to its Business Help Center, Nieman Lab reported. "We're pausing the changes as we continue to engage with stakeholders and take our time to get this right," a Meta spokesperson said. The pause covers the Commercial Terms, Product Catalog Terms, Self-Serve Ad Terms and Ad Creative Generative AI Terms, Reuters reported. The Brazilian injunction had been aimed at the November 20 date, and with the terms paused, that deadline no longer applies.

For creators who publish on Meta's platforms, the ruling and the pause change nothing in the near term. What the Brazilian case could still settle is whether a platform can require publishers to license their work for free as a condition of staying reachable on its services, a question the São Paulo court will take up on the merits.

Meta has five days after notification to present its defense in the Brazilian case, which proceeds toward a final judgment; the Norwegian order stands until the terms' legality is decided there.