Meta Delays New AI Ad Terms to Nov 20: Who Pays for AI Mistakes?
· Cortex Solutions
Meta pushed its new business terms to November 20. They make advertisers solely responsible for what Meta's AI changes in their ads. What it means for Saudi brands.
Meta has postponed the effective date of its new Commercial Terms and Self-Serve Ad Terms from October 30 to November 20, 2026. According to Reuters on October 23, as reported the same day by The Next Web and PPC Land, a company spokesperson said the delay is "to allow more time for us to explain to our partners and stakeholders what's changing and what's not."
The news may sound purely legal, but it affects every business advertising on Facebook and Instagram, because these terms decide who is responsible when AI edits your ad without being asked.
What do the new terms say?
According to an Adweek report by Trishla Ostwal in late October, the updated terms add a new "AI Features" section that is absent from the current version. It states that the advertiser is "solely responsible" for what Meta's AI features create or change, including features Meta switches on itself.
In the text, Meta acknowledges that its features "may make mistakes and may not always produce accurate, complete, or suitable results," and that "any and all risks" fall on the advertiser. According to Adweek, the previous wording held advertisers liable only if they chose to use the AI tools.
PPC Land, in its October 23 report, adds that the new section requires the business to indemnify Meta against claims "of any kind," and that Meta's liability is capped at the greater of $100 or what the advertiser paid in the previous twelve months, noting that this cap is older contract language.
The terms also allow Meta to send automated crawlers to websites linked to business accounts and use their content to develop advertising and business products. According to The Next Web, Meta says website owners can still use robots.txt to signal which pages they do not want crawled.
Real examples: edits nobody asked for
Adweek reported specific cases:
- Bookshop.org said an account update opted it into a generative AI feature, which added an AI-generated illustration to a human-made ad. It has since turned off all of Meta's AI ad features.
- Digital agency Exverus said Meta's AI added sitelinks, translated copy, and created images and carousels from brands' photos, sometimes on campaigns where advertisers never enabled those features, and it had to pull live ads to remove the changes.
- AdCellerant said Meta's approach puts "100% of the legal liability" on the advertiser, and that it turns off default automation on every campaign.
A Meta spokesperson told Adweek that advertisers can turn off individual Advantage+ features in Ads Manager at any time, but did not directly say whether advertisers are liable for features they never turned on.
Why the delay?
According to The Next Web, the delay followed broad objections, most notably from the News/Media Alliance, which represents more than 2,000 US publishers and demanded the terms be withdrawn, and from European publishers who asked EU and UK regulators to suspend them. The UK competition watchdog has also asked Meta to explain the terms.
Crucially, the wording has not changed so far. The Next Web, citing Fast Company, says Meta still plans to go ahead, and PPC Land notes that Meta has not said it will amend the text. PPC Land also notes that businesses cannot reject the terms and keep advertising, since continued use after notice counts as acceptance.
What does this mean for Saudi businesses?
Many stores, restaurants and clinics in the Kingdom rely on Instagram and Facebook ads, especially during sales seasons. If the terms take effect as written on November 20, any image, translation or copy that AI changes in your ad will count against you, in front of your customers and regulators. Practical steps to prepare in the coming weeks:
- Review Advantage+ settings in every campaign and turn off automatic enhancements you do not need, especially machine translation and image generation.
- Assign someone to review the ads actually running, not just the uploaded designs, since edits can happen after upload.
- Watch machine translation into Arabic closely: any error in a price, offer or wording falls on your brand.
- Check your website's robots.txt if you have pages you do not want automated crawlers to access.
- Keep records of your original designs and approved copy, so you can show what you actually approved.
- Do not put your whole marketing budget on one platform; build your own channels such as your customer base, WhatsApp messages and your website.
The broader lesson is that AI is a powerful marketing tool, but governance remains the business's responsibility. At Cortex Solutions we help businesses build smart automation where the final approval stays with a human. Learn about our AI automation services: https://cortex.sa/services/ai-automation