TLDR: Reddit has launched a lawsuit against AI startup Perplexity AI and three associated data-scraping companies, accusing them of unlawfully collecting vast amounts of Reddit’s user-generated content to train AI models. The social media platform claims these entities bypassed its protective measures and utilized Google’s search results as a workaround. Perplexity has denied the allegations, asserting its right to access public knowledge.
Social media giant Reddit has initiated a significant legal battle, filing a lawsuit against artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI and three data-scraping firms: Oxylabs UAB, AWMProxy, and SerpApi. The lawsuit, filed in a New York federal court on October 22, 2025, alleges an ‘industrial-scale, unlawful’ operation to ‘scrape’ billions of Reddit posts and comments without authorization for commercial AI training purposes.
According to Reddit, Perplexity, known for its AI chatbot and ‘answer engine,’ has been a ‘willing customer’ of these third-party scraping services, which specialize in circumventing security systems designed to block automated data collection. 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.’ He added that ‘Reddit is a prime target because it’s one of the largest and most dynamic collections of human conversation ever created.’
The complaint details how the defendants allegedly bypassed Reddit’s anti-scraping protections and even Google’s own security systems. Reddit claims that Perplexity utilized Google’s search results as a workaround to access its content after direct access was restricted. To substantiate this, Reddit reportedly created a ‘hidden’ post that was only indexed by Google. Within hours, this same post appeared in Perplexity’s AI-generated responses, which Reddit cites as confirmation that Perplexity’s system was pulling from Google’s cached Reddit pages.
Furthermore, Reddit alleges that it sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter in May 2024, warning the company to halt its scraping activities. Despite this, the lawsuit claims that Perplexity ‘ramped up its usage of Reddit content’ after the warning, citing Reddit content 40 times more frequently in its AI answers. Reddit emphasizes that it has established licensing agreements with other major AI players, including Google and OpenAI, for the use of its data, making Perplexity’s actions, in Reddit’s view, unauthorized and unfair.
Perplexity, in response, has denied the allegations. In a Reddit post, the company stated that it had not yet received the lawsuit but ‘will always fight vigorously for users’ rights to freely and fairly access public knowledge.’ Perplexity also asserted that it ‘don’t train their AI models on content’ and that it is already ‘lawfully accessing Reddit data.’ Oxylabs, one of the co-defendants, expressed ‘shocked and disappointed’ by the lawsuit, claiming Reddit made ‘no attempt to speak with us directly’ before filing.
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Reddit is seeking a permanent injunction to prevent further scraping, a ban on any future use or sale of its data, and monetary damages and profits derived from the unauthorized use of its content. This lawsuit is part of a growing trend of legal challenges in the AI industry concerning data usage rights and copyright infringement, highlighting the ongoing tension between content creators and AI developers over fair use and content ownership.
