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Reddit is suing Anthropic, alleging the AI firm illegally scraped vast amounts of user-generated content to train its Claude AI models. The social media giant claims Anthropic made over 100,000 unauthorized requests to its servers, violating terms of service and user privacy.

According to the lawsuit, Anthropic circumvented technical safeguards and disregarded Reddit’s terms, collecting data, including deleted posts, for commercial gain. Reddit provides structured data access via licensing, which Anthropic reportedly avoided to bypass costs and user protections.

The complaint cites a research paper linked to Anthropic’s CEO that mentions Reddit as a training data source. Reddit provides examples where Claude seemingly replicated Reddit posts verbatim, including deleted content, raising privacy concerns.

Reddit is seeking financial compensation and an injunction against Anthropic’s continued use of its data. Anthropic intends to contest the allegations. Reddit’s lawsuit, centered on breach of contract and unfair competition, could establish a benchmark for platforms controlling content usage in AI development. Share prices for Reddit went up by almost 70% after the filing.