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Comment Perplexity has it's own problems, scrapes copyrigh (Score 1) 6

The Perplexity controversy centers on accusations from major news organizations, like News Corp, that its AI search engine scrapes copyrighted content from the web without permission and fails to provide proper attribution, leading to a lawsuit for copyright infringement. Furthermore, a Cloudflare report in August 2025 alleged that Perplexity bots used deceptive "stealth crawling" tactics, disguising themselves to bypass website restrictions and access blocked content. Perplexity has pushed back against these allegations, claiming that the controversies are based on misunderstandings and misattributions, with the company arguing its activity is no different from a user browsing a website. Key aspects of the controversy: Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement: . News outlets such as Forbes, Wired, and News Corp have accused Perplexity of copying content without permission and reproducing it without adequate attribution. Bypassing Website Restrictions: . A report by the internet security company Cloudflare detailed how Perplexity bots allegedly disguised their identity, used fake user-agent strings, and rotated IP addresses to get around robots.txt files and firewalls, gaining access to restricted domains. Legal Action: . News Corp filed a lawsuit against Perplexity in October 2024, alleging large-scale copyright infringement and that the AI search engine diverts traffic and revenue away from publishers. Perplexity's Response: . Perplexity denies wrongdoing, claiming the allegations are based on a misunderstanding. The company states it acts as a user's agent when they ask for information about a specific website and is not using these interactions for training models but only for summarization and direct answers. Perplexity also disputed Cloudflare's findings, suggesting the security company confused Perplexity's usage with traffic from its third-party browser service, BrowserBase. Attribution Issues: . Perplexity has been criticized for failing to properly cite its sources, though the company has acknowledged the need for more prominent citations and plans to implement ad revenue-sharing deals with publishers. The controversy highlights broader issues surrounding AI's use of web content, including questions about fair use, intellectual property rights, and the ethical use of AI by search engines. AI responses may include mistakes. Learn more Perplexity AI: the answer engine with a lot of question marks | The Verge Perplexity has recently come under significant scrutiny following accusations that it scraped content without permission, and News... The Verge Perplexity Controversy: AI Ethics and PR Saves Jul 19, 2024 — perplexity has had just a horrific week of press this last week because they've been busted scraping the internet. wit... YouTube Grit Daily News Agents or Bots? Making Sense of AI on the Open Web - Perplexity Aug 4, 2025 — Directly Addressing Cloudflare: A Question of Competence. Cloudflare's recent blog post managed to get almost everythin... Perplexity Perplexity AI - Wikipedia Perplexity AI, Inc. was founded in 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski. As of July 2025, the com... Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Perplexity, Buzzy AI Startup, Accused of Plagiarism by News Corp. Oct 21, 2024 — Allegations of 'ripping off' news outlets Perplexity has clashed in recent months with a number of media organizations... Business Insider AI and Ethics: The Perplexity Plagiarism Controversy - Viinyx AI Jul 5, 2024 — Understanding the Controversy Perplexity AI, an AI-powered search startup, promised to revolutionize the way we access ... Viinyx Perplexity, Cloudflare, and the AI Web Crawler Controversy: Are AI Bots ... Aug 15, 2025 — What was especially notable was Perplexity's alleged use of undeclared crawlers, sometimes even impersonating browsers... TWiT.tv Perplexity Faces Allegations of Plagiarism and Unethical Web ... Aug 8, 2024 — where I think perplexity could get out of. this because they're they're they're getting that they're getting they're in... YouTube Jaeden Schafer Cloudflare says Perplexity's AI bots faked their identities to bypass site ... Aug 6, 2025 — Perplexity, an AI search startup, faces allegations from Cloudflare of using deceptive tactics to bypass website restri... The Times of India Perplexity is allegedly scraping websites it's not supposed to, again Aug 4, 2025 — Web crawlers deployed by Perplexity to scrape websites are allegedly skirting restrictions, according to a new report f... Engadget News Corp sues Perplexity for ripping off WSJ and New York Post Oct 21, 2024 — Over the past several months, news outlets like Wired and Forbes have accused Perplexity of scraping content without p... The Verge

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