A lawsuit brought by Elon Musk’s X against Israel’s Bright Data, centered on the scraping of public online data and its permissible usage, has been dismissed by a federal judge in California.
X, previously known as Twitter, accused Bright Data of scraping data from its platform and reselling it while employing sophisticated techniques to circumvent X Corp.’s anti-scraping measures. X also alleged that Bright Data violated its terms of service and copyright.
Data scraping involves automated programs gathering data from publicly accessible websites for various purposes, including AI model training and targeted online advertising.
In the U.S., scraping publicly available data is generally considered legal, as established by a 2022 ruling after a protracted legal dispute involving LinkedIn.
Previously, X sought damages exceeding $1 million from anonymous defendants for allegedly unlawfully scraping data related to Texas residents, as outlined in a lawsuit filed in Dallas County.
In his dismissal of the complaint, Judge William Alsup remarked that X Corp. aimed to retain its legal protections while exercising a copyright owner’s right to control access, essentially seeking fees from entities extracting and copying content from X users.
He cautioned against granting social networks unchecked authority over public web data collection and utilization, warning of potential information monopolies detrimental to the public interest.
The judge criticized X for prioritizing financial gain over user privacy, permitting content extraction and copying as long as it profited.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment, while Meta, formerly Facebook, had previously filed a similar complaint against Bright Data, also without success.
Bright Data, in an emailed statement, emphasized its victories against Meta and X, asserting that public online information belongs to everyone and any attempt to restrict access will fail.
The company underscored the far-reaching implications of the ongoing legal developments affecting various sectors, including business, research, and AI.
Bright Data maintains that it only scrapes publicly available data accessible to anyone without a login. At the time of the lawsuit filing, X had made the scraped information openly available to all.
