Meta Accused of Sharing Porn to Speed Up AI Training — New Lawsuit Could Cause Trouble

Meta is in trouble again. This time, it is not just using stolen books to train AI, but it might also be sharing porn to speed things up. Strike 3 Holdings, a company that makes pornographic entertainment, is suing Meta in the US. The company has accused Meta of pushing porn in the feed of users. Strike claims that since 2018, Meta has been downloading and uploading their copyrighted sexual videos on BitTorrent- a popular file-sharing service. In a serious accusation, the lawsuit claims that some of these file-sharing activities were traced to Meta’s own internet addresses and one to a Meta employee. Strike 3 claims that Meta didn’t simply download the movies; they even shared them with other people for days and sometimes even for weeks. 

Seeding is a sort of sharing that makes your downloads go faster on BitTorrent. In this case, Meta is accused of trading high-quality erotica to receive its AI training files, such as books, films, and other data, faster. 

This isn’t the first time Meta has been accused of stealing copyrighted material. Earlier this year, a group of writers had sued the social media company for illegally downloading more than 80 gigabytes of books from shadow libraries.  Meta pushed back, stating there is no indication they shared any files.  But Strike 3's lawsuit might now give those authors the proof they needed. 

What does Strike 3 want?

Strike 3 also believes that by putting adult movies on open networks, Meta may have made it easier for kids to get porn, especially in US states where age checks are now required by law. Strike 3 isn't simply asking for cash. They also want the court to have Meta take down all adult content from their AI training sets and never use it again. They suggest that Meta could be using these realistic pornographic videos to train AI models that could one day make whole porn videos without paying anyone.  Meta has not yet reacted to this lawsuit.  This case is different from others, though, because it's not only about infringing copyright laws.  It's about how far tech corporations might go to get data for their AI systems and who has to pay for it. 

Read More: Xbox Starts Age Verification in the UK—What Indian Gamers Should Know