Meta Faces Lawsuits Over Copyrighted Content and Minors' Images
Meta faces multiple lawsuits alleging unauthorized use of copyrighted adult videos for AI training, unauthorized use of minors' images from Instagram for commercial promotion, and enforcement of contractual penalties against a former executive who published a critical book about the company.
What happened
Strike 3 Holdings, an adult film production company, accused Meta of illegally downloading 2,396 copyrighted videos via BitTorrent to train its AI models.
Meta allegedly used images of minors shared by parents on Instagram to promote the Threads app without consent, despite some accounts being set to private.
Meta obtained a court ruling in March 2025 prohibiting Sarah Wynn-Williams, an ex-executive, from criticizing the company with a penalty of 50,000 dollars per violation after she published the book Careless People detailing internal practices.
Reported impact
Parents discovered their children's photos were used for commercial promotion by Meta in ways described as inappropriate.
The copyright infringement allegations claim Meta gained competitive advantages through unauthorized use of protected content.
Index analysis
The incidents represent multiple alleged violations: unauthorized use of copyrighted adult content for AI training, unauthorized use of minors' images without parental consent, and enforcement of contractual penalties against an employee for public speech.
Governance controls
Meta stated it was examining the copyright infringement allegations and did not believe the claims were accurate.
Meta defended its use of minors' images, stating the photos did not violate its policies and that it had implemented systems to prevent recommending content from adolescents that violates its guidelines.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.