Netflix reportedly paid $100 million to Facebook to access users’ private chats

In a new development, there are reports that streaming service, Netflix paid an outstanding $100 million to social media giant, Facebook in exchange for access to the private chat of all its users. This is according to a document shared by an X user Deedy, and reported on Watcher Guru. 

According to the document, Facebook gave access to user’s private messages in exchange for the streaming company’s watch history. Moreover, the video streaming platform allegedly paid over $100 million to Facebook.

According to the report, the streaming service, in 2011, announced a Facebook integration to share user data internationally. Netflix would later start lobbying the United States Congress to allow for such data sharing in the US.

Facebook and Netflix enjoy a long-term relationship

The document alleged that by 2013, Netflix had begun entering into a series of “Facebook Extended API” agreements. These include what they described as the ‘Inbox API agreement’ which allowed the streaming company programmatic access to Facebook’s user’s private message inboxes. In exchange for this, the video company would provide a written report every two weeks that shows daily counts of recommendation sends and recipient clicks by interface, initiation surface, and/or implementation variant (e.g., Facebook vs. non-Facebook recommendation recipients to Facebook. 

 ‘In August 2013, Facebook provided Netflix with access to its so-called “Titan API,” a private API that allowed a whitelisted partner to access, among other things, Facebook user’s “messaging app and non-app friends,” the document reportedly said.

According to the documents, the two companies enjoyed a close relationship “For nearly a decade.” 

The report further states, ‘It is no great mystery how this close partnership developed, and who was its steward: from 2011-2019, Netflix’s then-CEO Hastings sat on Facebook’s board and personally directed the 

Furthermore, the report states that the video streaming platform increased its advertising spending on Facebook. According to the report, ad spending on Facebook reached about $150 million yearly by early 2019.

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