Jakes asked a court to require that Google, which owns YouTube, share identifying information for several YouTube accounts located outside the U.S.
By Adrian Ashford
https://www.dallasnews.com/
Bishop T.D. Jakes, senior pastor of The Potter’s House in Dallas, is asking a California court to require Google to release identifying information for several YouTube accounts that Jakes says have defamed him with videos, some of which were partially created with artificial intelligence.
Jakes’ legal team filed a motion asking for approval to subpoena Google, YouTube’s parent company, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in December.
“Bishop Jakes has been the target of a sustained, year-long campaign by an army of YouTubers who have used their social media channels to spread completely false and baseless allegations against him,” Jakes’ lawyer Dustin Pusch said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News.
“We are pursuing this action in federal court in California to identify the individuals behind this false and targeted campaign, and will consider every legal avenue available to restore his good name and ensure that the truth prevails,” Pusch said.
In May, a report from Snopes, a fact-checking website, said some YouTube and TikTok videos spreading “false and unfounded rumors” about Jakes’ ties to Sean “Diddy” Combs were at least partially created using artificial intelligence. Jakes’ legal team included the Snopes report in its December filing.
The filing included a list of several dozen YouTube videos it said were posted between February and December along with their view counts as of December, which ranged from 405,272 to 855, according to the filing. Most of the videos’ headlines linked Jakes to Combs; a few made other unfounded claims.
Combs’ former girlfriend filed a lawsuit in November 2023 that said Combs had put her through a “cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking.” Combs has since been the subject of more than 30 additional lawsuits.
One lawsuit against Combs, filed in early 2024, said Combs “planned to leverage his relationship with [Jakes]” to rehabilitate his public image. Jakes was mentioned one time in the 73-page lawsuit.
Jakes’ December motion is seeking the identifying information of specific YouTube accounts that say they’re based outside the U.S.
Jakes seeks the requested subpoena “in aid of contemplated proceedings in Pakistan, South Africa, the Philippines, and Kenya, where the account holders themselves purport to be located,” according to the filing.
“[T]he only practical option for targets of disinformation like Bishop Jakes is to hold the actual users accountable,” Pusch told The News. “But since these YouTube users do not provide any of their contact information, we must first learn who the violators actually are, which is what this application is.”
Pusch also said Jakes’ legal team had attempted to work with YouTube to take down offending videos, and accounts that posted them, over the past year.
“YouTube largely referred us to its own reporting system and declined to engage with us directly to stop the spread of disinformation about Mr. Jakes on its platform,” according to Pusch. “While YouTube has taken down a handful of the violative posts, the vast majority of videos remain up on YouTube’s platform and most of the repeat-offender channels remain active.”
In November, Jakes suffered what his church called a “slight health incident” while on stage at The Potter’s House. Jakes returned to his church to deliver his first in-person sermon since the incident on New Year’s Eve, and called himself “Bishop Lazarus,” referencing a man in the Bible who is brought back from the dead.
Also in November, Jakes filed a defamation lawsuit against a man who alleged in a YouTube talk show last year that Jakes groomed and attempted to sexually assault him years ago.
Jakes’ lawsuit appeared to link his health incident to Youngblood’s accusations, and highlighted that the incident happened the day before Jakes sued Youngblood.
Adrian Ashford covers faith and religion in North Texas for The Dallas Morning News through a partnership with Report for America.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
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