Elon Musk's X has lost a lawsuit against Bright Data concerning data scraping

A lawsuit brought by Elon Musk's X against Israel's Bright Data, involving data scraping, was dismissed by a federal judge in California. X alleged that Bright Data scraped its data, employing sophisticated technical methods to bypass X Corp.'s anti-scraping technology. Previously, Meta also filed a lawsuit against Bright Data with similar outcomes.

A federal judge in California threw out a lawsuit brought by Elon Musk’s X against Israel’s Bright Data, which centered on the scraping of public online data and its proper utilization.

Formerly known as Twitter, X accused Bright Data of scraping its data and selling it using sophisticated methods to circumvent X Corp.’s anti-scraping technology. X also alleged that Bright Data violated its terms of service and copyright.

Data scraping involves automated programs extracting data from publicly accessible websites, for purposes ranging from training AI models to targeting online ads. In the U.S., scraping publicly available data is generally legal, as affirmed in a 2022 ruling following a lengthy legal dispute involving LinkedIn.

X had previously sought over $1 million in damages from unidentified defendants for allegedly unlawfully scraping data related to Texas residents, as stated in a suit filed in Dallas County.

Judge William Alsup dismissed the complaint, criticizing X Corp. for seeking to maintain safe harbors while simultaneously exerting a copyright owner’s exclusion rights, aiming to extract fees from those replicating X users’ content.

The judge warned against granting social networks total control over public web data collection and usage, cautioning against potential information monopolies detrimental to the public interest. He noted X’s lack of concern for protecting user privacy and its willingness to permit content extraction and copying in exchange for payment.

A representative for X did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Meta previously filed a complaint against Bright Data, which also proved unsuccessful.

Bright Data stated in an email that its victories against Meta and X underscored that public online information "belongs to all of us," and attempts to restrict public access would be futile.

The company emphasized that it only scrapes publicly available data accessible to anyone without requiring a login. At the time of the lawsuit, X had made the information scraped by Bright Data available to all users.

Source: CNBC