Now the Israeli startup Bright Data has defeated X in court (after successfully defeating Meta), and claims that it can change the world of technology – making it clear to the world that public information on the web belongs to all of us, and any attempt to deny the public access will fail.
Another contribution of the Israelis to humanity – opening up knowledge to everyone and not keeping it with the giant corporations that want to control it.
If there’s one thing tech companies don’t like, it’s when other companies use the information they collect to make money or develop their own products. Even before harvesting data to train AI models, companies did it for a variety of uses – including the Israeli Bright Data. This use has also gifted them with lawsuits from Meta and X (formerly Twitter), when Meta’s lawsuit they finally won about two months ago and now we are reaching the end point with Musk as well.
what is it about?
Last July, X sued Bright Data, alleging that it collected its user’s information and sold it. According to X’s lawsuit, Bright Data violated the Platform Use Agreement by harvesting users’ information. X’s lawsuit against Bright Data claims that the fact that the Israeli company sells data harvesting tools, which may lead to an alleged violation of the platform’s terms of use. It is important to note that the Israeli company claims that its entire information harvesting procedure is done solely on public information that is accessible anyway, and not information that it should not be exposed to.
“What is happening now is unprecedented and affects global high-tech”
A judge in a California court ruled this weekend that X cannot sue Bright Data, because it failed to prove that the Israeli company violated its terms of use as well as other claims that were in the lawsuit against Bright Data. The judge rejected X’s lawsuit against Bright Data outright and said that all the claims rejected in the lawsuit could lead to a situation of “information monopolies that would harm the public interest.”
The purpose of the lawsuit, let’s recall, was to block Bright Data from harvesting additional information from X and to prohibit the company from selling tools that enable the harvesting of this information by a third party. This, as mentioned, did not happen since the judge decided to cancel the lawsuit at Bright Data’s request. He states in his decision that “the law allows X to take reasonable steps to protect his property. But the use and sale of information harvesting tools and information harvesting services are not defined – by default – as fraud.”
He also emphasizes that X’s lawsuit did not come from the goodness of her heart and her desire to protect the privacy of the users of her platform. “X is happy to allow the harvesting and copying of the information created by its users, as long as it is paid for it,” Judge William Alsop notes. The case is closed, at least for now, but X still has about a month to file an appeal against the decision – if she decides that she suddenly has a way to prove a lot of claims that she hasn’t been able to prove so far.
Or Lenchner, CEO of Bright Data, who heads one of the largest data mining companies in the world, which works with more than 20,000 clients worldwide and is estimated to bring in more than 150 million dollars a year with a profit of tens of millions. The company keeps a low profile in Israel, but it has already managed to annoy giants like Meta and Twitter.
Lancher said about the success in canceling Musk’s and X’s lawsuit that “Bright Data’s victories over Meta (Facebook) and X (Twitter) from the past year make it clear to the world that public information on the web belongs to all of us, and any attempt to deny the public access will fail. What is happening now It is a precedent, and affects the global high-tech industry in general and the field of artificial intelligence in particular. We are proud as an Israeli company to stand up for ourselves, to protect the freedom of information on the web against the technology giants and to defeat them on their home turf.”
