Online Reporter
LOS ANGELES. – Eminem is not afraid to go toe-to-toe with a social media giant.
The “Love the Way You Lie” rapper’s publishing company Eight Mile Style filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms – which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – accusing the tech company of copyright infringement and seeking over US$109 million in damages.
Eminem’s lawsuit isn’t just about one artist defending his catalog.
It underscores a growing battle over how music is used, shared, and monetised in the age of user-generated content.
Platforms like Instagram and Facebook rely heavily on background music to fuel engagement, especially through short-form video tools like Reels.
But as artists and rights holders push back, this case could signal a turning point.
If the courts side with Eminem, it could force tech companies to overhaul how they obtain licenses and share revenue, especially for high-profile tracks.
It also raises serious questions about the limits of the DMCA’s safe harbour protections when platforms knowingly host and promote unlicensed content.
In short, this lawsuit could reshape how artists protect their work and how platforms profit from it.
In the filing, Eminem alleges that Meta violated the copyright of 243 songs from his catalogue through the “unauthorised storage, reproduction and exploitation” of the tracks on their platforms. The lawsuit cites the apps’ features, including Original Audio and Reels, as tools that “allow and encourage its users to steal” his music to use in video content “without proper attribution or license.”
As a result, the Grammy winner is seeking monetary damages for “the diminished value of the copyrights by Defendants’ theft of them, lost profits, and Defendants’ profits attributable to the infringement.”
Alternatively, he asked for the maximum statutory damages, requesting US$150,000 for each of the songs in question across all three of Meta’s platforms, totaling a whopping US$109,350,000.
E! News has reached out to Meta Platforms for comment but has not heard back.
The Detroit native has frequently channeled his personal life in his music, often rapping about his difficult childhood as well as his turbulent relationships with his late mother Debbie Nelson and ex-wife Kim Mathers.
In fact, he previously shared that expressing himself artistically has had a positive impact on his mental health.
“One of the great things about rap music is that you could put so much of your life in it,” he explained during an appearance on Shade 45’s Sway In The Morning in June 2022.
“It’s therapeutic and that’s how it’s always been for me.”
Eminem has also frequently rapped about his battle with addiction, including a 2007 drug overdose that led him to get clean the following year.
“I remember when I first got sober and all the s*** was out of my system,” he said in an interview on the Paul Pod podcast in September 2022.
“I remember just being really happy and everything was f*****g new to me again.” – E!/Yahoo
