Meta ordered to name executives behind torrenting of books for AI training

Meta has spent weeks pointing at rank-and-file staff over the torrenting of pirated books used to train its AI models. A federal judge now wants the names of the people above them. Magistrate Judge Thomas Hixson has ordered Meta Platforms to identify everyone involved in deciding to use BitTorrent to pull datasets from shadow libraries like Anna’s Archive and Library Genesis, better known as LibGen. The order, first reported by TorrentFreak, could move the spotlight from the engineers who ran the downloads to the managers and executives who allegedly signed off. What the court ordered The ruling, dated October 20, 2026, is a discovery order. Meta must clearly identify the key decision makers behind the choice to torrent books from Anna’s Archive and LibGen. The order also reaches discussions about seeding during downloads, particularly involving LibGen’s Scimag collection. Seeding means a torrent user uploads pieces of a file to other users while downloading it. In plain terms, a seeder is not just taking copies but also handing them out. The order follows testimony from Meta employees who handled the torrenting. Those staffers said supervisors, managers, and executives greenlit th...