A December 2025 announcement revealed that Meta has signed a multi‑year partnership with Le Monde (along with its sister publications) and several other prominent media organisations. The agreement allows Meta to license content from these publishers for use in its AI services — both to train its models (input) and to surface as references or sources in AI‑generated responses (output).
Under the terms of the deal, media‑rights and revenue sharing are clearly defined: output revenues derived from the licensed content are treated as “neighboring rights,” ensuring that journalists and publishers receive fair compensation — reversing a frequent criticism that generative‑AI companies exploit news content without payment or attribution.
The agreement also places emphasis on preserving editorial standards: it includes contractual provisions to safeguard plurality of opinion, reliability of information, and editorial independence — even while the content is used by a large tech platform.
This move reflects a broader trend of legacy media engaging proactively with AI platforms: instead of litigation or rejection, many publishers are choosing licensing deals as a way to assert rights, generate new revenue streams, and retain influence over how their journalism is used and presented in AI‑driven contexts.
