Meta disputes claim Netflix reads users’ private Facebook messages

American multinational technology conglomerate, Meta has disputed claims making the rounds that movie streaming site Netflix reads users’ private Facebook messages.

Meta was forced to deny the claim after X owner Elon Musk amplified several posts with his reactions about the issue by referencing a court filing that surfaced as part of the discovery process in a class-action lawsuit over data privacy practices between a group of consumers and Facebook’s parent company.

The court filing alleged that there was a “special relationship” between Netflix and Facebook and that Facebook even reduced its investment in original content for its Facebook Watch video service in order to avoid going up against Netflix, a significant Facebook advertiser.

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It further claims that Netflix was able to obtain the streamer’s “programmatic access to Facebook’s user’s private message inboxes” through Meta’s “Inbox API.”

In a statement challenging the notion that Netflix had access to customers’ private messages, Meta’s director of communications, Andy Stone, reprinted the original X post on Tuesday while refuting the accusations.

“Shockingly untrue,” Stone wrote on X. “Meta didn’t share people’s private messages with Netflix. The agreement allowed people to message their friends on Facebook about what they were watching on Netflix, directly from the Netflix app. Such agreements are commonplace in the industry”.

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