This month in Social Intelligence: September 2026
The social intelligence industry is changing faster than most people have time to follow. Companies are merging, people are moving, platforms evolving, AI capabilities appearing almost weekly. But not every announcement changes the discipline. Each month, we're looking at the developments that matter.
September 2026
Access to the public internet is getting more complicated
September brought several developments around who can collect and use publicly available online data.
Reddit is continuing to tighten control over access to its data. Existing Data API applications have been asked to register by 30 September as the company moves developers towards a more controlled access model. Reddit says the changes are intended to address commercial scraping, automated abuse and an API infrastructure that was not designed for today's scale.
At the same time, two legal cases have put scraping back under the spotlight. LinkedIn secured a consent judgment permanently preventing data provider ProAPIs from accessing or selling LinkedIn data after alleging that the company used fake accounts and automated tools to scrape millions of profiles. The agreement isn't a court ruling on whether scraping public data is inherently unlawful, but it is another example of platforms using contracts and access controls to determine how their data can be collected.
Reddit's case against Anthropic is also moving forward. A California judge allowed most of Reddit's claims over Anthropic's alleged scraping of Reddit content for AI training to proceed, including breach-of-contract and unfair-competition claims. This is an early stage of the case, not a judgment that Anthropic did what Reddit alleges.
YouTube changes what counts as a view
YouTube has changed how it counts views across videos, Shorts and live streams, including views generated through autoplay. The change also affects data returned through its API. For practitioners tracking video performance over time, it's worth noting: a change in the numbers may reflect a change in how YouTube counts them, not a change in audience behaviour.
Across the market
Arlequin raises €28m: French AI company Arlequin has raised €28 million in Series A funding to develop its approach to analysing large, complex datasets. Its technology spans areas including information integrity, security, fraud and investigations. For social intelligence, Arlequin is interesting because it sits on the expanding edges of the market, combining large-scale data analysis with narrative and network analysis rather than positioning itself as a traditional social listening platform.
Sprinklr reported Q2 results on 2 September: Revenue was $213.7m, up just 1% year-on-year, with subscription revenue up 3%. Remaining performance obligations reached $1.03bn, up 11%.
In practice
Estée Lauder Companies expands into AI visibility: Partnering with Profound to track how its brands appear and are recommended across AI answer engines including ChatGPT and Gemini. The partnership will operate across ELC's global portfolio, with the intelligence used to inform content and improve how its brands appear in AI-driven discovery. It's a significant example of a global brand taking AI visibility beyond individual experiments and applying it across its portfolio.
NIQ and Similarweb announced a collaboration around agentic commerce measurement: They're building a way to connect AI-driven product discovery with consumer intent, traffic and actual sales conversion.
From SI Lab
Three new Councils begin their work: This month, SI Lab announced the members of three new Councils focused on some of the questions facing the profession: Data Quality & Integrity, Agentic AI in Social Intelligence, and the Value of Social Intelligence. The Councils bring together practitioners from across brands, agencies, technology companies and research to examine each area and develop practical work for the wider profession.
Sources
Reddit v Anthropic: Access via Bloomberg Law here
LinkedIn v ProAPIs: Access via Bloomberg Law here and Daily Record here
YouTube view count change: Access via the Developers guide here
Arlequin series A: Access via Arlequin here
Sprinklr results: Access via Sprinklr newsroom here
Estée Lauder Companies expands into AI visibility: Access via EL Companies news
SI Lab Councils: Access via The SI Lab here