Megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes wants Google to help him deal with misinformation posted about him on YouTube.
Less than a month after suffering a health incident during service, attorneys for Jakes say the stress of defamatory comments made on social media against him, fueled the health scare.
Dustin Pusch, an attorney for Jakes who leads The Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, filed a motion in the Northern District of California Thursday to subpoena YouTube’s parent company, Google, to share the information that could help him identify the individuals behind four specific YouTube accounts, NBC News reported Thursday.
According to the outlet, the accounts, reportedly based in various countries, allegedly used AI tools to create deceptive content, including voice-overs and thumbnails. The lawsuit highlights concerns over YouTube’s handling of AI-generated misinformation, despite the platform’s recent push to expand AI-driven content.
“These YouTubers are purportedly using the sordid and sensational allegations revolving around Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to attack, humiliate, degrade, and defame Bishop Jakes—and many other prominent black celebrities—with manufactured claims that he is guilty of the same crimes and other lewd and repulsive conduct as Mr. Combs,” the motion said. “In other words, YouTubers are using Bishop Jakes’s prominence as clickbait to attract unwitting users to view their knowingly false videos for their (and possibly other foreign companies’) financial gain.”
As described in the motion and in screenshots of YouTube video titles and thumbnails viewed by NBC News, fake images show Jakes in a prison jumpsuit, in handcuffs and in sexual scenarios with other male celebrities. Video titles falsely claim that Jakes was arrested, came out as gay and stepped down from his position at The Potter’s House.
According to NBC News, if the motion and subpoena are successful, upon receiving information like IP addresses and email addresses, Jakes may pursue defamation litigation against the people behind the YouTube channels, the motion said.