Elon Musk’s X loses lawsuit against Bright Data over data scraping

A
federal
judge
in
California
dismissed
a
lawsuit
filed
by Elon
Musk’s X
against
Israel’s
Bright
Data,
in
a
case
that
involved
the
scraping
of
public
online
data
and
its
appropriate
uses.

X,
formerly
Twitter, sued
Bright
Data,
alleging
the
company “scrapes
data
from
X”
and
sells
it “using
elaborate
technical
measures
to
evade
X
Corp.’s
anti-scraping
technology.”
X
also
claimed
the
company
violated
its
terms
of
service
and
copyright.

Data
scraping
occurs
when
automated
programs
scour
publicly
accessible
websites
to
collect
data,
which
can
later
be
used
for
a
wide
range
of
purposes,
including
training
artificial
intelligence
models
and
targeting
online
ads.
The
practice
is
generally
legal
in
the
U.S.
when
it
involves
scraping
publicly
accessible
data,
according
to
a 2022 ruling
that
capped
off
an
extended
legal
battle
involving
LinkedIn.

X
was
previously
seeking
more
than
$1
million
in
damages
from
unknown
defendants
over “unlawfully
scraping
data
associated
with
Texas
residents,”
according
to a
suit
that
was
filed
in
Dallas
County.

In
dismissing
the
complaint,
Judge
William
Alsup
wrote, “X
Corp.
wants
it
both
ways:
to
keep
its
safe
harbors
yet
exercise
a
copyright
owner’s
right
to
exclude,
wresting
fees
from
those
who
wish
to
extract
and
copy
X
users’
content.”

Giving
social
networks
complete
control
over
the
collection
and
use
of
public
web data “risks
the
possible
creation
of
information
monopolies
that
would
disserve
the
public
interest,”
the
judge
wrote.
He
added
that
X
was
not “looking
to
protect
X
users’
privacy,”
and
was “happy
to
allow
the
extraction
and
copying
of
X
users’
content
so
long
as
it
gets
paid.”

A
representative
for
X
didn’t
immediately
respond
to
a
request
for
comment.

Meta
previously
filed
a
complaint
against Bright Data
and
was
similarly
unsuccessful.

Bright
Data
said
in
an
emailed
statement
that
its
victories
against
Meta
and
X
show
that
public
information
online “belongs
to
all
of
us,
and
any
attempt
to
deny
the
public
access
will
fail.”

“What
is
happening
now
is
unprecedented,
the
implications
impact
general
business,
research,
AI
and
beyond,”
the
company
said.

Bright
Data
says
it
only
scrapes
publicly
available data
that’s
visible
to
anyone
without
a
login.
At
the
time
of
the
suit’s
filing,
X
made
the
information Bright Data scraped
available
to
anyone.