On June 4, 2025, Reddit took legal action in California’s Superior Court, accusing the AI startup Anthropic of improperly scraping and using data from its platform. The lawsuit claims that Anthropic harvested posts and comments from Reddit—over 100,000 server requests—without a license, in direct violation of Reddit’s user agreement and automated access restrictions.
Reddit emphasizes that its terms of service strictly prohibit commercial use of user-generated content without an explicit license or agreement. While other AI firms like Google and OpenAI have negotiated formal deals to access Reddit data, Anthropic allegedly did not—and even boasted that it had blocked its bots from Reddit’s site starting in July 2024. Despite this, Reddit’s complaint says, Anthropic continued to gather data through automated means to train its Claude chatbot.
That data, which includes personal user contributions, is said to offer significant commercial value. Reddit is now seeking financial damages and an injunction to prevent Anthropic from using that content in any AI systems—including Claude.
Reddit’s general counsel argues that this case highlights the need for clear boundaries in how AI companies access and monetize online communities. Anthropic has responded by strongly denying the allegations, stating it will contest them vigorously.
The timing is notable: Reddit’s shares jumped almost 7% following news of the lawsuit, contributing to a steep 28% rise in overall gains so far this year.
The outcome of this case could reshape how platforms assert control over user content and how AI developers navigate licensing and ethical concerns around public data.
