Lawsuit: Reddit caught Perplexity “red-handed” stealing data from Google results

Ars TechnicaCenterEN 6 min read 100% complete by Ashley Belanger October 23, 2025 at 11:54 PM

AI Summary

long article 6 min

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Reddit accused Perplexity and several companies of illegally scraping content from Reddit that appears in Google search results. Reddit claims Perplexity uses this scraped data to power its "answer engine," which summarizes information found across various sources. The suit names Oxylabs UAB, AWMProxy, and SerpApi as co-conspirators aiding the alleged illegal scraping activities. Reddit tested the process by posting content visible only through Google search results and observed it appearing in Perplexity answers within hours. Perplexity denied wrongdoing, suggesting its practices are akin to sharing links on Reddit and accusing Reddit of attempting to extort licensing fees for its content.

Key Topics & Entities

Google ×260% Perplexity ×370% Reddit ×480%

Keywords

perplexity 100% reddit 100% data scraping 90% google search results 80% lawsuit 70% anti-scraping methods 60% content theft 50% ai search engine 50% oxylabs uab 40% serpapi 40%

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perplexity reddit data scraping google search results lawsuit anti-scraping methods content theft ai search engine oxylabs uab serpapi

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