Meta Strikes $50 Million AI Content Licensing Deal with News Corp
Generative AI companies have long faced copyright disputes over the unauthorized use of news content, while media groups are seeking to turn their reporting into licensing revenue. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is partnering with News Corp to establish a lawful channel for accessing trusted journalism from outlets including The Wall Street Journal. The arrangement could also make Meta AI’s answers to news-related questions more timely and reliable.
The Wall Street Journal reported on March 3, 2026, that Meta would pay News Corp up to $50 million annually under an agreement lasting at least three years. The license covers current and archived content from the group’s U.S. and U.K. publications. The material may be used to train AI models and help chatbots retrieve information and generate responses. At the three-year maximum, the licensing fees could total as much as $150 million.
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The history behind this eventMeta to Shift Content Moderation to AI, Phase Out Human Reviewers
Meta has long relied on third-party vendors to conduct content moderation at scale for Facebook and Instagram, employing about 15,000 outsourced reviewers. It is now assigning repetitive image-review tasks to its own AI systems. The shift will test whether the platforms can continue to address scams, drug dealing and celebrity impersonation effectively while reducing labor costs.
Meta announced on March 19, 2026, that it would reduce its outsourced moderation workforce by 40% over the next 12 months and gradually phase out the related human roles over several years. It did not disclose costs or severance amounts. The company said its AI can identify an additional 5,000 scam attempts each day that human reviewers miss, has doubled its detection of adult sexual solicitation content and has reduced views of policy-violating and scam advertisements by 7%.
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