Reddit Sues Perplexity AI Over Alleged Illegal Data Scraping
Reddit has filed a federal lawsuit against AI startup Perplexity, accusing the company of illegally scraping its data to train artificial intelligence systems. The legal action represents the latest battle between content creators and AI companies over copyrighted material.
Key Allegations
According to court documents filed in New York, Reddit alleges that Perplexity collaborated with three data-scraping companies – Lithuania-based Oxylabs, Russia-based AWMProxy, and Texas-based SerpApi – to illegally obtain content from billions of Reddit search results.
Reddit claims these companies bypassed its data protection measures to steal content that Perplexity “desperately needs” to power its “answer engine” system.
Growing Legal Trend
This case joins a growing wave of lawsuits where content owners are taking legal action against tech companies for using copyrighted material without permission to train AI systems. In June, Reddit filed a similar lawsuit against AI startup Anthropic, which remains ongoing.
Reddit’s Position
Reddit’s chief legal officer, Ben Lee, stated: “AI companies are locked in an arms race for quality human content – and that pressure has fueled an industrial-scale ‘data laundering’ economy.”
The social media platform emphasized that it’s one of the most frequently cited sources for AI-generated answers to user questions. Notably, Reddit has already licensed its content to major companies like Google and OpenAI for AI training.
Defendants Respond
Perplexity responded to the allegations, saying: “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.”
A SerpApi spokesperson stated: “We strongly disagree with Reddit’s allegations and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in court.”
Oxylabs expressed being “shocked and disappointed by this news, as Reddit has made no attempt to speak with us directly,” and committed to defending against the accusations.
Legal Escalation
Reddit revealed it had sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter last year. Following this communication, Reddit claims Perplexity “increased the volume of citations to Reddit forty-fold.” The company is now seeking monetary damages and a court order to prevent Perplexity from using its content.
