Recently, Snap Inc. was hit with a class-action lawsuit in a California federal court by multiple YouTube creators. The plaintiffs allege that Snap scraped videos from the social media platform YouTube without permission to train its generative AI models. They accuse the company of circumventing YouTube's safeguards through technical means to carry out large-scale video scraping.

On January 24, 2026, plaintiffs including Ted Entertainment Inc. (operator of the h3h3 Productions channel), Golfholics Inc. (operator of golf channels), and content creator Matt Fisher filed a complaint with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The plaintiffs allege in the complaint that Snap systematically scraped copyrighted video content from YouTube without authorization or compensation to train its generative AI products.

The plaintiffs stated in the complaint: “Snap did not seek permission or pay fair compensation, instead massively acquiring content creators' protected, copyrighted videos without consent or compensation. Its actions not only allegedly violate the law but also infringe upon the rights of the content creator community.” The plaintiffs further alleged that Snap's actions violated YouTube's terms of service prohibiting unauthorized mass downloads and may have violated the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Snap has not yet responded to requests for comment on the case.

This lawsuit expands the legal debate surrounding copyright issues in AI training data. Currently, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals is reviewing a case focusing on whether bypassing technical protection measures that prevent downloading constitutes illegal circumvention under Section 1201 of the DMCA.