Meta Halts AI Scraping Terms as Mountain View Picks New City Attorney

Digital publishing policy, municipal legal leadership, and specialty coffee craftsmanship are converging across Peninsula and Bay Area communities this week. Menlo Park-based Meta indefinitely delayed a set of commercial terms updates originally scheduled to take effect on November 20, 2026 that would have permitted automated web scrapers to crawl external websites linked to Meta Business accounts to train artificial intelligence models.

First reported by Harvard's Nieman Lab on October 15 and publicly addressed by Meta Vice President Andy Stone on October 28, the proposed revisions spanned the company's Meta Commercial Terms, Product Catalog Terms, Self-Serve Ad Terms, and Ad Creative Generative AI Terms. The language sparked swift opposition from news organizations and lawmakers, including a formal inquiry from California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff to Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, an open letter from News/Media Alliance Chief Executive Officer Danielle Coffey, and a Digital Markets Act complaint filed by 4 European press associations alongside preliminary injunctions in Norway and Brazil and an investigation by the United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority.

In municipal governance, the Mountain View City Council announced it will vote on November 10 to appoint San Mateo County Assistant County Executive Justin Mates as city attorney, effective January 4 at an annual salary of $400,000. Mates joined San Mateo County in 2012, served 6 years as deputy county executive, helped guide 20 Peninsula cities through a $226 million vehicle license fee budget shortfall, and holds degrees from Stanford University and Harvard Law School. Praised by Mountain View Mayor Emily Ann Ramos, Mates will succeed former City Attorney Jennifer Logue—who was appointed in June by Governor Gavin Newsom to the Contra Costa County Superior Court—and Interim City Attorney Jannie Quinn, leading an office of 6 attorneys, 2 code enforcement officers, and 3 support staff.

Just north in downtown Los Altos, local specialty coffee brand Amblett launched a Friday and Saturday pour-over slow bar residency running from 8 to 11 a.m. through November inside Tal Palo at 149 Main St. Founded by Andrew and Angelina Czajkowski after originating last year as ACz Coffee Club, Amblett offers 10-ounce bags priced between $27 and $31, roasted every Wednesday at Berkeley-based CoRo Coffee Roasters across Colombian washed, Ethiopian black honey, and washed Kenyan selections alongside a limited-release anaerobic washed Geisha roasted in collaboration with Strait Coffee Roasters in San Jose.