Meta is denying allegations that it provided Netflix with access to users’ private messages. These claims recently gained traction on X after owner Elon Musk amplified several posts about the issue with comments like “Wow” and “Yup.” The allegations stem from a court filing revealed during the discovery process of a class-action lawsuit regarding data privacy practices involving a group of consumers and Facebook’s parent company, Meta.

The document asserts that Netflix and Facebook maintained a “special relationship,” suggesting that Facebook even reduced its spending on original programming for its Facebook Watch service to avoid competing with Netflix, a significant advertiser on the platform. It also claims that Netflix had access to Meta’s “Inbox API,” which purportedly allowed the streaming service “programmatic access to Facebook’s users’ private message inboxes.”

This part of the allegation prompted Musk’s reactions on X, leading to a wave of outraged responses regarding the sale of Facebook user data.

In response, Meta is disputing the accuracy of these claims. Andy Stone, Meta’s communications director, shared the original post on Tuesday, emphasizing that Netflix did not receive access to users’ private messages. He stated, “Shockingly untrue. Meta didn’t share people’s private messages with Netflix. The agreement allowed users 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.”

In summary, while Meta acknowledges that Netflix had programmatic access to users’ inboxes, it asserts that this access was not used to read private messages.

Beyond Stone’s post on X, Meta has not offered any additional comments. However, The New York Times previously reported in 2018 that documents it obtained indicated that Netflix and Spotify could read users’ private messages. At that time, Meta denied these claims through a blog post titled “Facts About Facebook’s Messaging Partnerships.” In that post, Meta clarified that Netflix and Spotify had access to APIs that allowed users to message friends about what they were watching or listening to directly from those apps. This arrangement required the companies to have “write access” to compose messages to friends, “read access” to allow users to read messages from friends, and “delete access,” meaning that if a message was deleted from the third-party app, it would also be removed from Facebook.

“No third party was reading your private messages or writing messages to your friends without your permission. Many news stories imply we were sharing private messages with partners, which is not correct,” the blog post stated.

Notably, Messenger did not implement default end-to-end encryption until December 2023, a feature that would have eliminated concerns over these claims, as it would have ensured message protection. The absence of encrypted communications combined with read/write access to message inboxes raises doubts about the security of messages, even if that was not the primary purpose of the business arrangement.

While Stone is downplaying Netflix’s ability to access private messages, it is important to note that the streaming service had a level of access that other companies did not. The document claims that Netflix had access to Facebook’s “Titan API,” a private API that facilitated its integration with Facebook’s messaging app. In exchange for access to the Inbox API, Netflix was also required to provide Meta with a “written report every two weeks” detailing its recommendation sends and recipient clicks, and to keep its API agreement confidential.

By 2015, Netflix was reportedly spending $40 million on Facebook ads and allowing its user data to be utilized for Facebook ad targeting and optimization. By 2017, Netflix agreed to increase its ad spending to $150 million and provide Facebook with “cross-device intent signals.”

Netflix and Facebook maintained a close relationship, with then-Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who was also a Facebook board member until April 2019, communicating directly with Facebook (Meta) executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, Comms VP Elliot Schrage, and CTO Andrew Bosworth.

To support Netflix’s advertising business, Zuckerberg himself emailed Facebook Watch head Fidji Simo in May 2018, informing her that the budget for original content and sports was being cut by $750 million as Facebook aimed to stop competing directly with Netflix. Facebook had been developing the Watch service for two years and had only introduced the Watch tab in the U.S. in August 2017.

Additionally, the filing reveals that Meta monitored Snapchat traffic secretly, among other practices.