YouTuber Ethan Klein lost a motion to dismiss the defamation case brought against him by producer Ryan Kavanaugh after the California Court of Appeal upheld a prior ruling on Thursday.
Klein — who is famous for his H3H3 podcast and Internet troll persona — filed an anti-SLAPP motion to try to get the former Relativity Media CEO and film financier’s initial complaint stricken, claiming his comments fall under free speech after Kavanaugh accused the influencer of defamation.
“Ryan Kavanaugh brought an action against Ethan Klein and Ted Entertainment, Inc. (TEI) for defamation and defamation by implication alleging they falsely accused him of running a Ponzi scheme,” the court explained in summary in documents obtained by TheWrap. “The trial court denied defendants’ anti-SLAPP motion to strike Kavanaugh’s complaint. We affirm.”
According to the filings, the case started when Variety published a June 2019 article entitled, “Ryan Kavanaugh Accused by Ex-Partner of Running a Ponzi Scheme.” In it, the trade wrote that “Elon Spar filed a lawsuit against Kavanaugh in Los Angeles Superior Court on June 6, 2019, alleging Kavanaugh persuaded
him to go into business with Kavanaugh under false pretenses. Spar had developed an idea for a stock exchange in which buyers could purchase equity in film projects.”
However, the outlet later updated its coverage to include a statement from Kavanaugh’s team that he and Spar had “satisfactorily resolved all of their issues.”
Then in April 2021, Triller Fight Club II sued Klein and his podcast company for copyright infringement after they used footage of their pay-per-view fight and music event without permission. At the time, Klein alleged that Kavanaugh was behind the lawsuit despite not being directly involved (the former Relativity Media producer was also the founder of Proxima Media, which had a controlling stake in Triller from 2019-2022).
“Kavanaugh’s complaint alleges that beginning on June 11, 2021, Klein launched a campaign to harass and defame him in retaliation for Triller Fight Club II’s copyright action,” the court docs detailed. “Klein used his YouTube channels and other social media platforms to disseminate the defamatory accusation in the Variety article that Kavanaugh ran a Ponzi scheme. Within hours of its publication in Variety, that accusation had been retracted and the article had been corrected. Klein knew of the retraction and correction but repeatedly republished the false accusation over the following months.”
The case could have ramifications in the current influencer environment, as Klein was accused of encouraging his followers to continually update Kavanaugh’s Wikipedia page and circulate clips on reddit and other forums.
Ultimately, Kavanaugh’s lawyer Amy McCann Roller issued the following statement: “This is an important case about the growth of online and professional trolling, which required a real analysis of when free speech is no longer a harmless opinion.”
According to the court, Kavanaugh will now be allowed to pursue damages.
The post YouTuber Ethan Klein Loses Anti-SLAPP Appeal in Producer Ryan Kavanaugh Defamation Case appeared first on TheWrap.