This week, Meta filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit from Strike 3 Holdings, which alleges that the tech company illegally downloaded pornography to train its artificial intelligence models. The lawsuit claims that Meta’s employees engaged in unauthorized downloads of adult films from Strike 3’s library, utilizing a hidden network of over 2,500 IP addresses to conceal the activity.
According to Strike 3 Holdings, these illegal downloads could have incurred damages exceeding $350 million. In its response, Meta accused the plaintiff of relying on speculation and suggested that they have a track record of "extortive lawsuits." Meta’s legal team argued that there is no substantial evidence linking the company to the wrongful downloads and denied that it directed any of the alleged activities.
Meta claims that the downloads took place over a span of seven years, starting in 2018, which is before the company’s significant AI development efforts commenced. The company argues that the volume of downloads—about 22 adult films per year—does not reflect a coordinated attempt to gather content for AI training purposes. Instead, Meta suggests that the activity likely represents personal use by individual employees.
The filing emphasizes that the terms of service prohibit generating adult content, further undermining Strike 3’s claims. Meta also pointed out that the lawsuit fails to identify any specific individuals who downloaded the content from their IP addresses, making it difficult to establish a direct link to the company.
Furthermore, Meta criticized the lawsuit’s assertion of a "stealth network" for its downloads. The company questioned why it would covertly download content while simultaneously using easily traceable corporate IP addresses for other downloads. They described the premise as nonsensical and unsupported.
Meta concluded by asserting that it has taken appropriate measures to prevent the unauthorized use of adult content in its AI training and has provided no evidence to suggest otherwise. As the case unfolds, Strike 3 has two weeks to respond to Meta’s motion. For the tech giant, winning this lawsuit is crucial not only to avoid potential damages but also to uphold its commitment to not include explicit content in its AI systems.
For further details, you can view the original claims made by Strike 3 Holdings here.
