Reddit has initiated a lawsuit against Perplexity and several other data-scraping companies, alleging that they illegally accessed and used its proprietary data. Filed in Manhattan federal court, the lawsuit claims that these firms circumvented Reddit's digital protections by using Google’s search engine to scrape content. Reddit accuses Perplexity, along with Oxylabs UAB, AWM Proxy, and SerpApi, of effectively stealing data to train their artificial intelligence models.
In the lawsuit, Reddit compares the actions of these companies to bank robbers who, unable to access a vault, target an armored vehicle instead. Reddit states that it had previously issued a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity in May 2024, requesting that it stop scraping data unless an agreement was reached. Despite this, Reddit claims that citations of its content by Perplexity increased significantly after the warning.
Perplexity has responded by asserting that it does not use Reddit's content for AI training and claims to adhere to Reddit’s data access protocols. However, Reddit's lawsuit suggests that Perplexity has continued to find ways to bypass its security measures. The lawsuit highlights a test post created by Reddit that was viewable only through Google, which later appeared in Perplexity's outputs, suggesting unauthorized access.
Reddit's legal team has described the companies involved as "textbook examples" of illegal scrapers, emphasizing the importance of protecting the data generated by its user community. The broader context includes Reddit’s efforts to enhance its search capabilities and compete in the online search market, particularly following partnerships with companies like Google, which uses Reddit data to improve its AI models.