The renowned streaming service Netflix, known for its vast library of content, is currently facing lawsuit from Meta due to an alleged backroom deal. According to The Hollywood Reporter, back in 2015, Meta, formerly known as the Facebook company, which is known for creating connections with people and growing business, faced issues with its ad revenue, which was caused by a decrease in price growth and a data shortage in the system to be personalized for each user.
It was then in 2017 that an in-house streaming platform dubbed Facebook Watch was launched and advertised signed deals by celebrities such as Elizabeth Olsen (Wandavision), Bill Burr (The Mandalorian) and Catherine Zeta-Jones (The Haunting). According to The Hollywood Reporter, it wasn’t until 2019 that Reed Hastings was in charge of leading Facebook’s committee, and the relationship between the two cooked up new agreements in data sharing. These agreements would allegedly allow users to read, write, and delete private messages. The class action was sent to a court in Illinois, and it was rumored that Hastings had allegedly conducted secret meetings behind the scenes.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a spokesperson from Meta denied the allegations against them in a statement: “This suit is baseless, and there is no evidence that any such agreement exists.” The two social media giants have been working together for decades. Netflix bought millions of dollars in ads, which increased Meta’s ad targeting.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the lawsuit further stated, “Facebook was willing to kneecap its Watch video service in exchange for extremely valuable consumer data from Netflix as well as Netflix’s dramatic increase in its spending on Facebook advertising.”
In the end, it remains to be seen how the court will rule on these allegations, but the case could have significant implications for the future of the streaming industry and the regulation of tech giants.