According to a petition by the Northern California Court of Justice, Reddit, a social platform in the United States, is in the process of bringing a lawsuit against Anthropic, the original company of AI, for illegal theft of website data for training artificial intelligence models. In its petition, Reddit asserted that Anthropic had violated Reddit ‘ s user agreement and that it was even more illegal to use website data for commercial purposes without authorization.
Reddit stated that, since July 2024, Anthropic had made more than 100,000 illegal visits to Reddit through automatic reptile technology, in violation of platform user protocols and data use policies. Anthropic had publicly promised not to use Reddit data without authorization, but had acted in contravention of that promise, which had led to the detriment of Reddit in terms of commercial interests and the protection of user privacy.
Ben Lee, Chief Legal Officer of Reddit, stated: “We will not tolerate profiting billions of dollars from Reddit content by a profit-making entity like Anthropic, but will not give Reddit users any return, much less respect for their privacy”.
According to Reddit ‘ s response, Anthropic continues to use reptile technology to acquire user content for training its AI model (e.g. Claude) knowing that the Reddit rule prohibits unauthorized access to data. Reddit has repeatedly requested Anthropic to cease such acts, but has not responded. Reddit stressed that it had entered into data authorization agreements with companies such as OpenAI and Google, and that Anthropic had attempted to circumvent the licence and to engage in “white sex” practices, which constituted unfair competition and contractual breach.
In response to Reddit ‘ s allegations, Anthropic categorically denied them and indicated that he would respond positively. It states that its data acquisition was in accordance with industry norms and did not violate Reddit ‘ s user agreement. Anthropic also stated that the facts would be clarified in court and the legality of its technological development would be upheld.
In its Memorial, Reddit requested Anthropic to pay compensation and, at the same time, to return the proceeds obtained through the illegal theft of Reddit content. Reddit also requested an injunction from the court prohibiting Anthropic from continuing to use Reddit content.