- Kyle Chua
Meta Paid A Partner To Scrape Websites Despite Publicly Condemning the Practice
Meta hasn't been shy about condemning the practice of scraping, having taken companies that have pulled data from its own social media platforms to court. But the social media giant has apparently been engaging in that same practice itself, though for supposedly different reasons.
According to Bloomberg (via Engadget), court documents from Meta's lawsuit against Israel-based data collection platform Bright Data reveals the Facebook parent company paid it to scrape other websites. Meta Communications Director Andy Stone confirmed the partnership, saying Bright Data was indeed contracted by Meta. Meta's complaint also contains a message from the contractor that reads, "Meta has long been a valued client of our proxy and scraping services for at least the last six years."
Stone, however, maintained that Bright Data's role was limited to "finding harmful websites and identifying phishing operations", not targeting competitors. He also said that, if done lawfully and within a site's terms of service, the practice of data scraping can be helpful for companies like Meta, which owns multiple platforms that have billions of users.
As for what sites Bright Data scraped for Meta is unknown. Meta ended its arrangement with Bright Data and sued the contractor for allegedly stealing and selling Facebook and Instagram users' personal information, a violation of Meta's terms. Bright Data then countersued, arguing that the data it was scraping was public, and therefore aren't in violation of any terms or laws.
"This case is all about public data: whether the public has the right to search public information, or whether Meta can use the courts as a tool to eviscerate that right, even where Meta does not own the data at issue and has no property rights in it," said Bright Data in its motion.
In its complaint, Meta is seeking to put an end to Bright Data's data harvesting on its platforms. Bright Data, meanwhile, is seeking a ruling from the court that its activities were lawful.
Court documents from Meta's lawsuit against Israel-based data collection platform Bright Data reveals the Facebook parent company paid it to scrape other websites, despite publicly condemning the practice in the past.
Meta Communications Director Andy Stone said Bright Data's role was limited to "finding harmful websites and identifying phishing operations", not targeting competitors.
As for what sites Bright Data scraped for Meta is unknown.