Meta Sued for Downloading Porn, Deepfakes, Gun Blueprints
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- Strike 3 is suing Meta for allegedly downloading 2,973 of its copyrighted adult videos; during evidence gathering, the company found Meta's networks also accessed Celebgate hack images, deepfake porn featuring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen, and Gal Gadot, GirlsDoPorn archives (including two "MegaPack" compilations), and 19 files containing 3D-printable handgun models.
- Judge Eumi Lee denied Meta's motion to dismiss, citing download sequences like "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987-1996)" immediately followed by "Teen Sex Sessions 2 (2012)" — writing that Meta's coincidence theory "strains belief" and likely indicates "algorithmically coordinated behavior."
- Meta called the claims "bogus" and labeled Strike 3 a "copyright troll," arguing the material was downloaded for personal consumption by employees, contractors, or office visitors; a Meta spokesperson said the company "take[s] deliberate steps to avoid training on this kind of material," though Lee noted Meta's terms-of-service ban on AI-generated porn is irrelevant to whether it wanted to acquire the content.
- Nearly 300 file transfers traced to a Mountain View private residence that Strike 3 claims belonged to a Meta contractor's father; downloads stopped when the contractor left Meta, and Meta characterized these transfers as "plainly indicative of personal consumption."
- University of Birmingham cybersecurity professor Tom Chothia reviewed Strike 3's BitTorrent data-collection methods and confirmed that, assuming the records weren't tampered with, "they have established that people at Meta were uploading" Strike 3's videos — seeding them to other users for up to three months after download.
- Former Meta employee Jelmer van der Linde told a supervisor in a 2024 work chat that downloading copyrighted books via BitTorrent for AI training seemed "a very very dark grey area. Legally, ethically"; he was moved off the project, and another developer downloaded the books instead. He has since left Meta for the Ellison Institute of Technology in Oxford.
- OpenAI and Anthropic have also used BitTorrent to download copyrighted books, per separate lawsuits, though whether those companies uploaded or distributed the files remains unclear — suggesting mass torrenting is an industry-wide pattern rather than a Meta-only one.
Why it matters: Judge Lee's denial of Meta's motion to dismiss — combined with evidence that Meta's networks seeded Strike 3's videos for months via BitTorrent — puts the company at legal risk extending well beyond the adult-film copyright claim into potentially distributing hacked passwords and 3D-printed gun blueprints. The fact that OpenAI and Anthropic have also used BitTorrent suggests mass piracy is systemic across the AI industry's data-acquisition playbook.
