Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

Wouldn’t you think a major antitrust lawsuit filed against and involving the world’s largest social media and largest streaming provider would be a prominent story in all news media? This “shadowbanned” or censored lawsuit has the potential of making some of the largest waves ever seen in data privacy law and civil penalties yet is rarely mentioned in the media. Facebook and Netflix are the world’s largest social media and streaming providers in terms of subscribers.  Facebook reaches a staggering 3 billion of our population, while Netflix enters more than 260  million people’s homes. In regards to Netflix, the 260 million aforementioned are paid subscribers. This number does not factor in shared accounts where one subscriber’s account could be used in multiple locations for multiple people. That’s a whole lot of data.

Most of us have used Facebook Messenger at some point for one reason or another; be it talking to family, friends, or romantic partners, it is the most popular messaging app in the world.  Most people that utilize the messenger service think they have full privacy and discuss some of the most intimate aspects of their lives within the app. In recently released case documents in  “Klein v. Meta Platforms et al,” Northern District of California, the plaintiffs allege that Facebook allowed Netflix access to their users’ private messages to better advertising returns for Netflix,  and even allowed Netflix to message Facebook users directly.

“For nearly a decade, Netflix and Facebook enjoyed a special relationship. Netflix bought hundreds of millions of dollars in Facebook ads; entered into a series of agreements sharing data with Facebook; received bespoke access to private Facebook APIs; and agreed to custom partnerships and integrations that helped supercharge Facebook’s ad targeting and ranking models,” the lawsuit alleges.

APIs (application programming interface) are proprietary, brand-specific programs written by the company, that allow two or more platforms to communicate with one another directly, as well as share information with one another including user data and in this instance, Facebook users’ private messages.

The lawsuit alleges that “The API agreement allowed ‘Netflix programmatic access to  Facebook’s private messages inboxes, in exchange Netflix would ‘provide to FB a written report every two weeks that shows daily counts of recommendations sends and recipient clicks by interface, initiation surface, and/or implementation variation (e.g. Facebook vs. non-Facebook  recommendation receipts).’”

“In August 2013, Facebook provided Netflix with access to its so-called ‘Titan API,’ a private API  that allowed a whitelisted partner to access, among other things, Facebook users’ ‘messaging app and non-app friends,’” the documents in the lawsuit claim. “Whitelisted” means any person or entity given prior access to specific parts of any platform that the public could not have access to. The lawsuit also claims Netflix’s co-founder, Reed Hastings, joined Facebook’s board of directors and was instrumental in the shutting down of Facebook Watch, Facebook’s proposed streaming service competitor to Netflix.

The lawsuit goes on to allege that in 2015, Netflix was spending over $40 million on Facebook ads, and was permitting Netflix user data to be used for Facebook ad targeting and better optimization. In 2017, Netflix agreed to spend $150 million on Facebook ads and provide the  company with “cross-device intent signals.”

In perhaps the most damning piece of evidence in the case, documents allege Mark  Zuckerberg himself, the founder of Facebook, emailed the head of Facebook Watch, Fidji Simo,  in May 2018 to tell her that Watch’s budget was being cut by $750 million as the social network did not want to compete with Netflix. At that time, Facebook had been developing Facebook  Watch for two years.

Facebook has a history of infringing its users’ privacy. Most recently in 2023, it settled with  17,700,000 users via class action to the tune of $725,000,000.00 for allowing user data to be leaked online and provided to 3rd parties. If what is alleged in this antitrust lawsuit is true, Facebook’s penalties could reach tens of billions, and the affected users could receive massive compensation via class action that dwarfs the 2023 settlement.

As stated earlier in the article, this lawsuit isn’t making news when it involves the two largest platforms in their respective fields, and it could become case law on internet data privacy and monopolies. I’ll concede that the case has yet to go to trial nor has Facebook or Netflix agreed to any settlements; however, these allegations are absolutely newsworthy when Facebook has an extensive history of data privacy violations.

All users of Facebook and subscribers to Netflix should be aware of these allegations and learn from them. Every single time you talk about some item on your phone and then see ads targeted to that same item on Facebook, know big tech is listening to, and manipulating, you. Every single time you search for something on the internet and then see ads targeted to that same search subject in your social media, know you are being manipulated. Every single time a story isn’t reported of monopolies potentially violating privacy laws together to spy on consumers to better their bottom line, you are being manipulated by the media. To this author, big is never better when it comes to tech and media.  Stay vigilant. Stay safe.

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Jason Sheppard

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