Meta sued for 'willfully ignoring' hundreds of copyright infringement reports

A group of people who upload videos of extreme weather events, including tornadoes, to Facebook and Instagram have filed a class action lawsuit against Meta, alleging that the company has failed to properly respond to copyright infringement requests. The lawsuit alleges that the group sent hundreds of DMCA takedown notices to Meta, which the company either ignored or improperly handled.

Storm Chasers Sue Meta for Ignoring Repeat Infringements of Popular Accounts * TorrentFreak
https://torrentfreak.com/storm-chasers-sue-meta-for-ignoring-repeat-infringements-of-popular-accounts/

Brandon Clement, an award-winning 'storm chaser' who chases and films tornadoes, makes his content available for free on his YouTube channel , his official website ' WxChasing ,' and his Facebook account , each of which has hundreds of thousands of followers and viewers.

Natural Disaster Compilation - YouTube


According to Clement, his content is often copied without permission to unrelated channels, and most of the serious copyright infringement is happening on Facebook. Clement reported that in 2022, he investigated popular videos shot by fellow storm chasers and found more than 44,000 copies on Facebook.

Clement and others warned that Meta's failure to address copyright infringement could result in legal action being taken. This warning escalated into a class action lawsuit filed in Texas federal court in January 2026 alleging various types of copyright infringement against Meta.

Clement and his group of plaintiffs allege that Meta frequently fails to enforce its terms prohibiting copyright infringement. 'Despite submitting compliant DMCA takedown requests, despite having sent hundreds of thousands of notices over the years, Meta has, for a variety of improper reasons, failed to remove infringing users' unauthorized use of various of Plaintiffs' works,' the plaintiffs allege. The complaint specifically lists hundreds of DMCA requests that Meta allegedly ignored or improperly handled.

In addition to DMCA requests, Meta also offers a support tool for Facebook and Instagram called Rights Manager , which helps content owners protect and manage their rights as a means of responding to copyright infringement. However, because accounts that regularly engage in copyright infringement have millions of followers, the tool has repeatedly mistakenly determined that the copy is the rights holder, and there have been reported cases in which the original rights holder has been blocked from using Rights Manager for hastily abusing the feature. In the past, there have been reports of scammers abusing Rights Manager to threaten to remove the original content.

Scammers exploit Meta's copyright protection tools to threaten creators with content deletion unless they pay a ransom - GIGAZINE

To support its claim that Meta intentionally ignores reports of fraud, the complaint cites leaked documents reported by Reuters in November 2025. These documents allegedly state that Meta's internal forecasts estimated that 10% of its revenue in 2024 could come from fraud and advertising prohibited products. The complaint cites this and suggests that Meta may have been intentionally ignoring reports of copyright infringement, stating that 'while fraudulent activity by small accounts was stopped after eight warnings, Meta would not take action against accounts that provided high value to Meta unless they received more than 500 warnings.'

'Meta has failed to comply with DMCA takedown requirements and its intellectual property policies regarding repeat infringing accounts, demonstrating a gross failure to comply with laws essential to a company of its size and sophistication. Meta's failure to effectively enforce its copyright policies demonstrates actual and willful infringement by Meta,' the plaintiffs wrote.

The complaint does not seek specific damages, but the plaintiffs' claims of Meta's liability extend beyond its management responsibility as a platform to include various other claims, including direct copyright infringement and aiding in copyright infringement, which could result in damages totaling millions of dollars.