Meta Employee Deleted 9TB of Torrented Files, Adult Film Producers Claim

📰 New article from TorrentFreak

Meta Employee Deleted 9TB of Torrented Files, Adult Film Producers Claim

https://torrentfreak.com/meta-employee-deleted-9tb-of-torrented-files-adult-film-producers-claim/

Ever wonder what happens when a tech giant’s internal file‑sharing meets Hollywood’s “no‑piracy” crusade?

In July 2025 adult‑content studios Strike 3 Holdings and Counterlife Media sued Meta, accusing the company of siphoning torrent‑downloaded movies to train its AI. The claim is massive—up to $350 million in damages—and hinges on a trail of BitTorrent traffic that the plaintiffs say their proprietary tracking software captured.

Meta’s answer? A motion to dismiss, insisting the occasional downloads were just “personal use” by employees and not part of any coordinated data‑mining scheme. The plot thickened when Strike 3 pointed to a February hearing in an unrelated book‑author case where a Meta employee allegedly erased 9 TB of torrent files—prompting plaintiffs to demand immediate discovery before the evidence can vanish.

Meta counters that nothing was destroyed, that proper legal holds are in place, and that only 157 downloads over seven years were even mentioned in the complaint. The discovery request now targets everything from ML‑Hub logs and PySpark traffic to hidden AWS IP addresses.

Both sides agree a trial could land in early 2028 if the case survives dismissal—so keep an eye on this clash of copyright watchdogs versus AI ambition.