Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, is facing a lawsuit alleging it illegally pirated and distributed thousands of copyrighted adult films. The plaintiffs, Strike 3 Holdings and Counterlife Media, claim Meta downloaded and seeded their content via BitTorrent networks, allegedly using the materials to assist in the training of artificial intelligence models.
Strike 3 Holdings owns popular adult content brands, including Tushy, Blacked, and Vixen, which collectively attract over 25 million monthly visitors. The lawsuit accuses Meta of targeting 2396 registered copyrighted works. The films were allegedly downloaded and seeded on public torrent swarms to provide broad distribution without authorization or compensation.
The complaint further alleges that Meta participated in these torrent swarms for several days to months. This practice reportedly allowed the company to benefit from the tit-for-tat distribution model of BitTorrent, which provides faster download speeds when users also seed content to others. Plaintiffs argue this behavior amounted to calculated digital piracy.
Meta allegedly utilized complex concealment methods to avoid detection. At least 47 IP addresses associated with Meta were identified in the torrenting activity. Plaintiffs claim that 6 Virtual Private Clouds, along with residential IP addresses tied to Meta employees, were used to conduct and mask the unauthorized downloads of their copyrighted adult films over multiple years.
Strike 3 further alleges that the pirated content was subsequently used to train the AI systems. The complaint expresses concern that such AI systems, when trained on high-quality adult imagery, could generate derivative or competitive content at scale. This could severely harm producers of original adult media by saturating the market with low-cost and AI-generated equivalents.
The lawsuit also raises ethical issues. Plaintiffs suggest that the tech giant may have redistributed adult content without implementing any age verification mechanisms. This could result in inappropriate access by minors, especially in jurisdictions where digital platforms are legally required to restrict access to explicit materials through user verification systems.
Meta Platforms has publicly denied the accusations. In a statement, the company declared it was reviewing the complaint but did not believe the claims made by Strike 3 Holdings were accurate. The company has not issued further comment, and no additional evidence has been publicly presented to refute or confirm the details stated in the complaint.
The plaintiffs are seeking substantial legal remedies. These include monetary damages, a permanent injunction against Meta to prohibit further use or distribution of their content, and an order requiring Meta to delete all pirated adult media and any AI models trained on that data. Legal proceedings are currently ongoing. Developments are expected in the coming months.
The case highlights growing tensions between intellectual property holders and tech firms engaged in AI development. As AI models increasingly rely on vast datasets, often scraped from the internet, questions regarding lawful sourcing and ethical data use have escalated. The outcome may influence broader standards for data acquisition in the AI industry.
Photo Credit: InvadingInvader/ An Aerial view of Meta’s Main Headquarters/ Adapted/ CC BY-SA 4.0