When you post photos, videos, or other content on Meta platforms, you give Meta a worldwide license to store, copy, share, modify, and create derivative works from that content, consistent with your privacy settings, for as long as the content remains on the platform.
This analysis describes what Meta's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
The license is transferable and sub-licensable, meaning Meta can authorize third parties, including service providers, to use your content under this grant, which may have implications for creators and businesses posting proprietary material.
Interpretive note: The practical scope of derivative works and modification rights may vary by jurisdiction, particularly in EU member states with inalienable moral rights protections.
The updated terms establish a jurisdictional change for consumers. Previously, all disputes had to be resolved in California courts; now, if you are a consumer or if your country requires it, disputes must be resolved in courts within your home country under your home country's laws. For Meta's own claims against you, the agreement still requires disputes to proceed exclusively in California courts. The revised terms also now require Meta to notify you at least 30 days in advance before making changes to these Terms, and you will have the opportunity to review them before they take effect, unless changes are required by law.
View change record →This provision authorizes Meta to host, distribute, modify, and create derivative works from content users post, and to sub-license those rights to third parties such as service providers, for the duration the content remains on the platform. Users can limit the scope of this license by adjusting their privacy and audience settings before posting.
How other platforms handle this
By posting or submitting content on or through the Services, you grant Upwork a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid, sublicensable, and transferable license to use, copy, modify, create derivative works based on, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, and otherwise exploit in...
"Content" means anything you or your Customers create or make available through the Service in connection with your Account, including your intellectual property (e.g. trademarks, trade names, service marks, and copyrighted works); the products or services you offer (e.g., courses, coaching, members...
By posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting your Content you grant Kit, its affiliated companies and necessary sublicensees permission to use your Content in connection with the operation of their Internet businesses including, without limitation, the rights to: copy, distribute, trans...
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"Specifically, when you share, post, or upload content that is covered by intellectual property rights on or in connection with our Products, you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, and worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content (consistent with your privacy and application settings). This means, for example, that if you share a photo on Facebook, you give us permission to store, copy, and share it with others (again, consistent with your settings) such as Meta Products or service providers that support those products and services.— Excerpt from Meta's Meta Terms of Service
REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: This provision implicates GDPR Article 6 lawful basis requirements for EU/EEA users, particularly where content processing extends beyond the scope of service delivery. The sub-licensable and transferable nature of the license may require evaluation under GDPR data minimization and purpose limitation principles. The FTC Act's unfair or deceptive practices provisions are also engaged where the scope of the license is not sufficiently surfaced to average users at the point of posting. GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: Medium. The license is broad in technical scope but is qualified by user privacy and application settings, and the royalty-free, worldwide, sub-licensable structure is common among major social media platforms. Compliance exposure arises primarily in jurisdictions with moral rights protections or where user content contains third-party personal data. JURISDICTION FLAGS: EU/EEA users benefit from GDPR protections that may constrain how broadly this license can operate in practice, particularly regarding processing of special category data embedded in content. In some EU member states, moral rights in creative works are inalienable and cannot be waived by contract, which may limit the derivative works component of this license. CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Businesses and developers posting proprietary content, customer data, or commercially sensitive material should assess whether this license is consistent with their own IP ownership obligations and client contracts. The sub-licensable nature of the grant means downstream use by Meta's service providers may not be fully visible or controllable. COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Compliance teams should evaluate whether employees posting on behalf of organizations are subject to internal content policies that interact with this license grant. Data mapping exercises should account for the possibility that personal data embedded in posted content may be processed by sub-licensees under this provision.
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The license is transferable and sub-licensable, meaning Meta can authorize third parties, including service providers, to use your content under this grant, which may have implications for creators and businesses posting proprietary material.
This provision authorizes Meta to host, distribute, modify, and create derivative works from content users post, and to sub-license those rights to third parties such as service providers, for the duration the content remains on the platform. Users can limit the scope of this license by adjusting their privacy and audience settings before posting.
ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 15 platforms. See the full comparison.
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