Social media giant Meta allowed Netflix access to Facebook users’ direct messages for nearly a decade, violating anticompetitive practices and privacy rules, explosive court documents allege.
The court documents, released last week, are part of a larger antitrust lawsuit brought by U.S. citizens Maximilian Klein and Sarah Grabert, who argue that Netflix and Facebook “enjoy a special relationship.” Netflix claims it will be able to better coordinate advertising with Facebook because of “ .
As part of this close relationship, Facebook received millions of dollars in ad revenue from Netflix and was guaranteed $150 million in ad spending in 2017, the lawsuit alleges.
Social media giant Meta Inc. allegedly allowed Netflix to peek into Facebook users’ direct messages, according to court documents. (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images | Photo illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via / Getty Images)
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The lawsuit also alleges that Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings joined Facebook’s board of directors and later helped shut down Facebook Watch, a competitor to Netflix’s streaming service.
The lawsuit was filed in April 2023, with Hastings asking the court to grant the plaintiffs’ claims.
“For nearly a decade, Netflix and Facebook have had a special relationship. Netflix has purchased hundreds of millions of dollars in Facebook advertising, entered into a series of data-sharing agreements with Facebook, and gained bespoke access to private Facebook APIs. “We received custom partnerships and integrations that helped us significantly enhance Facebook’s ad targeting and ranking models,” the complaint states.
An API (Application Programming Interface) is software that allows two or more computer programs or components to communicate with each other and share information.
This API agreement “allowed Netflix to programmatically access your private message inbox on Facebook. In exchange, Netflix may provide daily recommendations for each variation of interface, opening surface, and/or implementation. Provide FB with a written report every two weeks showing the number of sends and recipient clicks (e.g. Facebook and non-Facebook recommended receipts).
“In August 2013, Facebook provided Netflix with access to the so-called ‘Titan API,’ which allows whitelisted partners to access Facebook users’ ‘messaging apps and non-app friends,’ among other things. “It was a private API to do so,” the document claims.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg founded Meta in 2021. (Kevin Dietch/Getty Images)
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Meta has stated in the past that we do not disclose users’ private messages to our partners without their knowledge, and that API access only gives partners the ability to access their inboxes, and therefore the ability to send messages to users via the API. He said that he would be able to do so.
“Meta did not share people’s private messages with Netflix,” a Mehta spokesperson told FOX Business on Tuesday. “As stated in the document, this agreement allows people to message their Facebook friends about what they’re watching on Netflix directly from the Netflix app. Such an agreement is the first in the industry to general. We are confident that the facts show that this complaint is meritless.”
FOX Business also reached out to Netflix for further comment, but did not immediately receive a response. Facebook changed its name to Meta in 2021 after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Metaverse, a virtual reality space.
In 2018, the New York Times published a report citing hundreds of pages of articles. Facebook documentationclaimed that Facebook was allowing Spotify and Netflix to access users’ DMs.
The publication reported that this connection has led to Facebook’s explosive growth and strengthened its advertising revenue stream.
Meta has already been fined for sharing users’ information without their permission.
In 2022, Ireland fined Meta $284 million after data about more than 500 million users was leaked online.
Netflix logo appears in photo illustration (January 23, 2023). (Beata Saursel/NurPhoto via / Getty Images)
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Mehta claimed the names, phone numbers, locations and birthdays of users who used the platform between 2018 and 2019 were leaked online by “malicious actors” who exploited security vulnerabilities. reported the Daily Mail.
That same year, Meta agreed to pay $725 million to settle a security breach lawsuit related to British social media engineering firm Cambridge Analytica.
The company paid Facebook for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users and targeted U.S. voters during the 2016 election campaign, which culminated in Donald Trump’s election victory. was used to do.
