Reddit has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI and three data-scraping service providers, SerpApi, Oxylabs, and AWMProxy, accusing them of unlawfully accessing copyrighted Reddit content to train artificial intelligence tools. The complaint alleges that these companies engaged in “industrial-scale, unlawful circumvention of data protections.” Reddit compared the scrapers to “would-be bank robbers” who, unable to access the source directly, “break into the armored truck carrying the cash instead.”
According to Reddit, Perplexity utilized data from at least one of the scraping companies to power its “answer engine” rather than entering into a formal data agreement. The platform stated that it sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity in May 2024; however, the company’s use of Reddit data allegedly increased afterward.
Ben Lee, Reddit’s Chief Legal Officer, said, “AI companies are locked in an arms race for quality human content — and that pressure has fueled an industrial-scale ‘data laundering’ economy.” He added that Perplexity “chose to buy stolen data rather than enter into a lawful agreement.” In response, Jesse Dwyer, Perplexity’s Head of Communication stated, “We will always fight vigorously for users’ rights to freely and fairly access public knowledge.” Oxylabs also denied the claims, saying it provides lawful access to publicly available data and that “no company should claim ownership of public data that does not belong to them.”
