BBC Slams Perplexity for Copying News, Demands Payback

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Written by Aaron S.,

Editor-In-Chief

Last Updated: June 20, 2025

Key Takeaways

The BBC accused Perplexity of copying its articles word-for-word without permission;
The broadcaster demanded content removal, compensation, and warned of reputational harm from AI misuse;
Perplexity denied wrongdoing and claimed the BBC is trying to protect Google’s dominance.

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The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has accused Perplexity, a US-based artificial intelligence (AI) company, of copying its news content without permission.

According to a June 20 report by BBC, the broadcaster sent a letter to Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, requesting that the firm cease using its material, delete any existing content, and offer compensation for past use.

The BBC stated that Perplexity’s chatbot has been repeating its articles word for word, which it considers a clear breach of copyright and a violation of its usage terms.

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The letter claimed these issues hurt the BBC’s reputation and risk damaging trust among its audience, especially those in the UK who pay licence fees to support the service. The broadcaster argued that the chatbot may cause confusion about what was actually reported and by whom.

The broadcaster also pointed to its own research from February, which found that several popular AI tools, including Perplexity, were summarizing news inaccurately.

Furthermore, the BBC noted that news organisations typically negotiate agreements before their content is reused, especially when it is part of a commercial product.

Perplexity dismissed the BBC’s claims. It stated:

The BBC's claims are just one more part of the overwhelming evidence that the BBC will do anything to preserve Google's illegal monopoly.

Meanwhile, OpenAI has challenged a copyright lawsuit from The New York Times, which demands that the company keep records of all user interactions. What did OpenAI say? Read the full story.