Reddit Sues AI Startup Perplexity Over Alleged Data Theft
Social media platform Reddit has filed a federal lawsuit against AI company Perplexity, accusing it of illegally scraping Reddit’s data to train its AI models. The lawsuit names three data-scraping companies as co-defendants in what Reddit calls an “industrial-scale data laundering” operation.
Key Details of the Lawsuit
- Reddit filed the lawsuit on October 22 in New York federal court
- Defendants include Perplexity and three data-scraping firms: Oxylabs (Lithuania), AWMProxy (Russia), and SerpApi (Texas)
- Reddit claims these companies bypassed its data protection measures
- The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages and a court order blocking data use
According to court documents, Reddit alleges the data-scraping companies circumvented protection measures to steal data that Perplexity “desperately needs” to power its AI “answer engine” system. Reddit claims its platform is the most frequently cited source for AI-generated responses to user queries.
Broader Legal Context
This case is part of a growing wave of legal challenges by content owners against tech companies accused of misusing copyrighted material to train AI systems. Reddit has previously licensed its data to companies like Google and OpenAI for AI training purposes, but claims Perplexity accessed billions of search results without permission.
The lawsuit follows similar legal action Reddit initiated against AI startup Anthropic in June, which remains ongoing.
“AI companies are locked in an arms race for quality human content—and that pressure has fueled an industrial-scale ‘data laundering’ economy,” said Reddit’s chief legal officer, Ben Lee.
Perplexity’s Response
In response to the lawsuit, Perplexity defended its practices, stating:
“Our approach remains principled and responsible as we provide factual answers with accurate AI, and we will not tolerate threats against openness and the public interest.”
Reddit alleges it sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter last year, after which Perplexity reportedly increased its citations to Reddit content “forty-fold.”
