The quick version:
Reddit alleges Perplexity used false identities, residential proxy networks, and circumvention to scrape its content at scale.
The legal line is hardening, collecting public data is defensible, bypassing barriers is not.
It is one of several cases reshaping scraping precedent this year.
What the complaint says
Reddit accuses Perplexity of systematically evading its bot detection by disguising automated requests as ordinary user traffic. The accusation is about deception and circumvention, not merely reading public pages.
The dividing line to memorise
Collecting publicly accessible data, without logging in and without circumventing technical barriers, sits on solid ground. Bypassing anti-bot measures or scraping behind logins is where the real legal risk lives.
Build to survive a courtroom
Collect only public, logged-off data, do not circumvent access barriers, rate limit respectfully, and present as a normal visitor on a real residential or mobile IP. The data teams arguing on X that anything public is fair game are missing the point, the cases punishing scrapers are the ones involving deception, not careful collection.
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