CNN sues Perplexity over alleged AI scraping and unauthorized news distribution
CNN has sued Perplexity in a New York court over alleged AI-driven scraping and unauthorized use of its journalism. The lawsuit claims the startup bypassed paywalls and reproduced premium news content without licensing agreements.
Published By: Deepti Ratnam | Published: May 29, 2026, 02:52 PM (IST)
CNN has filed a major copyright lawsuit against AI search engine Perplexity. According to CNN, Perplexity has been found doing unlawful scrapping, copying, and distributing its journalism without permission. In addition, Perplexity has also doing it without CNN's licensing and financial compensation.
The lawsuit has been filed in a New York court and marks a major escalation. This is the first time when a direct legal action has been taken by traditional news networks against any generative AI firms over intellectual property theft. As per broadcaster, Perplexity has exploited its journalism to build a highly valued 'answer engine.' This tool actively competes with original reporting.
Massive Scraping and Paywall Violations Alleged
According to legal complaint, Perplexity bypassed website restrictions. The company also ignored the digital markers which were designed to lock CNN's web crawlers. With the help of these evasive scraping methods, the AI startup allegedly summarized and lifted premium news coverage.
The lawsuit highlights two primary areas of infringement:
The lawsuit against Perplexity highlighted two essential areas. These include:
Paywall Evasion: Under this method, Perplexity's engine crawled and reproduced substantial portions of high-value CNN articles. These content were normally locked behind the network's subscription paywall.
Verbatim Outputs: Under this process when a user enters any exact news headlines into the platform, Perplexity's chatbot allegedly generated a near verbatim excerpts of the text. This resulted into removing any incentive for users to click through to CNN's original platforms.
Broken Negotiations and "The Stealing of Original Content"
Warner Bros. Discovery-owned news company had previously dabbled in licensing talks with Perplexity, it said. But those negotiations came to an end when neither party agreed to the proper monetary remuneration. CNN states that the startup was well aware that it was illegally accessing the network's servers, thus it has been intentionally violating the law.
CNN observed that good journalism costs a lot and is sometimes risky to make, and that pirating news content has an impact on the economics of original reporting. CNN is also demanding big financial damages and a permanent court order against Perplexity from the platform continuing to use its content.
Perplexity Fires Back: "You Can't Copyright Facts"
Perplexity has stood firm against the allegations and has been utilizing a defense it has been using in multiple litigation battles.
In a response to the filing, Perplexity's spokesman Jesse Dwyer said to tech publication The Verge:
Facts can't be copyrighted!
The startup claims its engine is an aggregator of openly accessible data, and it summarizes real-world events - not replicate protected creative works.
This is a Widening Legal Front for Generative AI
The suit is an important escalation in the long-running feud between media giants and the generative AI startups. As of late, the media sector has been worried that AI-driven content may cause a decline in direct traffic to news outlets and simultaneously bring in revenue for journalism without offering payment.The media sector has been concerned about the potential for AI to replace direct traffic to news websites and monetize journalists without compensation since OpenAI's launch of ChatGPT in 2022.
In particular, Perplexity is getting a huge spate of litigation. The company has already been sued and threatened with lawsuits from some of the world's largest publishers and digital platforms for alleged scraping and reuse of copyrighted material such as:
- The New York Times
- Dow Jones (parent company of The Wall Street Journal)
- The New York Post
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