20 YouTube Videos That Led to HUGE Lawsuits
advertisement
VOICE OVER: Patrick Mealey
WRITTEN BY: Jordy McKen
From copyright battles to defamation claims, these YouTube videos landed their creators in serious legal trouble. Join us as we explore the most notorious cases where online content resulted in major lawsuits! Our countdown includes controversial pranks, reaction videos gone wrong, and influencers who crossed the line with devastating consequences. We'll examine everything from Logan Paul's Japanese forest controversy to H3H3's landmark fair use case, Cardi B's multi-million dollar win against Tasha K, and Nintendo's aggressive stance against piracy. Which YouTube legal battle surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments below!
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re examining the most infamous times videos released by YouTubers caused another party to issue a lawsuit for one reason or another.
This lawsuit has the potential to change the game for influencers forever. On various social media sites, including YouTube, Alyssa Sheil is an influencer who orders loads from Amazon for her videos. She also tends to favor beige aesthetics and similar styles, earning the nickname “Clean Girl.” This pushed Sheil into conflict with influencer Sydney Nicole Gifford, who claims she was stealing her brand. In 2024, Gifford issued a suit against Sheil for copyright infringement. She claimed she met Sheil in 2023 at an event. Gifford was soon blocked online by Sheil and then allegedly began following a similar style. If this lawsuit goes to trial, it could change the landscape for how copyright is handled involving influencers.
Nintendo is well-known for taking action against those it accuses of infringing on its intellectual property. Yet, if the allegations are true, it’s a pretty straightforward case against Jesse Keighin and his Every Game Guru brand. In 2024, Nintendo issued a lawsuit against him for streaming pirated games on his YouTube channel and other services, including games that were not yet officially released. The video game giants also claimed Keighin had told his followers how to pirate the games. The games involved include “The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom,” “Mario & Luigi Brothership,” and “Pikmin 4.” Nintendo also issued takedown notices, which led to Keighin to delete many of his accounts.
Once one of the biggest family channels on the platform, The ACE Family fell from grace in their personal lives as one legal issue popped up. In 2021, Catherine McBroom was issued with a lawsuit by TBL Cosmetics for trying to stage a coup. LivexLive issued a suit against Austin McBroom for a breach of contract after hosting an influencer boxing event. That case was settled in 2022. At the same time, the McBroom house was foreclosed on and put up for auction. In 2023, the ACE Family channel stopped posting on YouTube. The following year, Austin and Catherine split up. But the legal issues weren’t done. In 2024, Austin was sued by Brittney Collinson for entering her house without consent for videos.
Another genre of YouTube content is vigilantism, where creators will attempt to get justice against someone while recording them. One such channel was Zach Sweers’s Anxiety War, which targeted predators by pretending to be children online. One of the subjects for a video was Zachary Snoeyink. In 2016, Snoeyink issued a lawsuit against Sweers despite being criminally charged with attempting to meet up with what he believed was a minor. Snoeyink’s lawsuit made several accusations against Swears, including slander, invading privacy, and claims Sweers had edited footage to make Snoeyink look worse. Alastaire Kolk followed with a similar lawsuit before both cases were settled. However, Swears’s evidence was used in the criminal case against Snoeyink. He was sentenced to two years of probation.
Best known for her YouTube channel Akilah Obviously, Akilah Hughes recorded footage of Hilary Clinton at the Presidential election night party in 2016. However, she then saw her footage was used by the controversial YouTuber Carl Benjamin on his Sargon of Akkad channel for a video titled “SJW Levels of Awareness.” In response, Hughes issued a suit against Benjamin for copyright infringement in 2017. In 2020, the judge dismissed Hughes’s claim and ruled that Benjamin using the video clip was acceptable under “fair use.” As a result, Hughes had to pay his legal fees and costs, which were nearly $39,000.
From 2019 to 2020, Black Summer took place in Australia, where bushfires ran rampant as properties were destroyed and hundreds of lives were lost. After the devastation, Jordan Shanks, better known as friendlyjordies, took to YouTube to blame politician John Barilaro for the fires and accuse him of corruption. Shanks also mocked Barilaro’s Italian heritage at events by dressing up as Mario. Barilaro filed a lawsuit against Shanks for defamation and Google for not removing the videos. Then, controversy arose when Shanks’s producer Kristo Langker was arrested for harassment, bringing accusations Barilaro was lying. The Shanks lawsuit was settled in 2021. Shortly after, Barilaro resigned from politics, blaming the Shanks scandal as the cause. In 2022, Google had to pay Barilaro $715,000.
While on tour in Germany in 2010, Ryan Leslie’s laptop, which contained intellectual property, was stolen from his car. In response, the musician put out a video asking for it back, offering a reward of $1 million. Amazingly, the laptop was found by local garage owner Armin Augstein, who returned it to Leslie. However, the intellectual property was missing. As such, the musician refused to pay the reward. In 2012, after Augstein sued and won, Leslie had to pay the $1 million plus $180,000 in interest. Leslie then attempted to file for bankruptcy, leading to more legal issues. In 2017, Leslie agreed to forfeit the rights to his music catalog until the fees to Augstein were paid.
As part of his course at the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania, Matt D'Avella teamed up with his brother Mark to poke fun at gangsta rap with the parody song “Produce Paradise” in 2007. While working at an A&P store, the duo, calling themselves Fresh Beets, rapped about working in a grocery store. However, some lines upset their employers. At one point, the brothers imply they urinate on items if a customer is rude. Rather than enjoy the clear parody and the free publicity, A&P fired the D'Avellas and issued a $1 million lawsuit against them, demanding they scrub the video from the Internet. In 2008, the brothers reportedly settled the case by removing the video. However, it can still be found online.
Being a practical joke content creator can be a slippery slope. Often, they end up going too far, as was the case for Eric Kanevsky and Yuguo Bai. The duo worked together on a video at the University of Southern California in 2022. As students were in a lecture about the atrocities during World War II, Kanevsky walked in as his Russian Mafia persona. Bai, on the other hand, came in as Hugo Boss, who made the uniforms for Germany at the time. This sparked mass panic among the students as they feared for their lives and left quickly. USC was livid and issued a lawsuit and a restraining order against Kanevsky and Bai, which was granted.
In 2022, teenager Kiely Rodni vanished on her way back from a party in Truckee, California. For two weeks, her family desperately searched for her. Unfortunately, Rodni’s body and her car were found in a lake after an accidental crash. With the rise of true crime influencers, Ryan Upchurch was one such person to jump on the case. However, he released various videos claiming that Rodni didn’t exist and that it was a scheme by the family to raise money from crowdfunding sites. Understandably, this caused outrage. On top of a petition created calling for Upchurch’s removal from YouTube, Rodni’s family also issued a lawsuit against him for defamation. In 2024, the suit was given a green light by a judge to proceed.
Known for creating YouTube skits, the wheels of James Jackson’s career as Onision came off in 2019 as allegations about grooming came to light. This led to Daniel Sulzbach, AKA Repzion, making videos about Jackson, criticizing his behavior. Best known for his “To Catch a Predator” series, Chris Hansen, now operating a YouTube channel, approached Jackson’s home in 2020 to discuss the allegations. Instead, Jackson called the cops and later filed a lawsuit against Hansen and Sulzbach for harassment. However, another Chris Hansen was reportedly served with the lawsuit, and wrote to the judge asking for the suit to be dismissed. In response, Jackson dropped the case. In 2023, Jackson was handed a lawsuit for allegedly using his channel for grooming.
At its peak, FTX was one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchange companies around. With the influx of cash, the firm signed a lot of celebrities to endorse its services. This included several YouTubers, such as Kevin Paffrath, Brian Jung, and Erika Kullberg. In 2022, FTX filed for bankruptcy. It was soon discovered that the higher-ups in the firm, including co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, were involved in massive fraud. As a result, many customers lost their money. In 2023, eight YouTubers who had promoted FTX in their videos were issued with a $1 billion class action lawsuit for misleading their audiences. Tom Nash and Paffrath soon settled their cases.
Ray William Johnson created the YouTube series “Equals Three,” which examined viral videos and commented on them. It quickly made him one of the platform's biggest stars, as the channel was the first to hit 5 million subscribers. However, in 2014, Jukin Media, which licenses online videos, issued a lawsuit against Johnson for using their clips. The group also demanded that 41 videos be removed. While a judge seemed to agree with Johnson in 2015, in 2016, the trial got underway. Once the legal teams made their closing arguments, Johnson and Jukin Media settled the case. For Johnson, this was seemingly the best decision, as reportedly the jury was set to take Jukin Media’s side.
James Stephanie Sterling, best known for her YouTube channel Jim Sterling, is an influencer in video game journalism. Well, in 2014, she turned her attention to the game “The Slaughtering Grounds” by the company Digital Homicide. Sterling slammed the product, calling it one of the year’s worst games and criticizing it for using assets from Google Images. She also claimed the company targeted any criticism by deleting negative comments and banning players. In 2016, Digital Homicide issued a lawsuit against Sterling for defamation for $10.8 million, rising to $11.6 million with individual claims. The company then increased the demand to $15 million. However, after Digital Homicide had folded, the suit was dismissed with prejudice in 2017.
Known for discussing celebrity stories with her channel UnWineWithTashaK, Tasha K has ruffled famous feathers. Several times, this has caused the law to get involved. In 2023, Tasha spoke to Kevin Hart’s former personal assistant, Miesha Shakes, who worked for him for three years. During the chat, Shakes claimed Hart had a gambling problem and that she’d had an affair with the married actor. Hart soon issued a lawsuit against Shakes and Tasha for defamation and extortion after she allegedly offered to not publish the interview if he paid her $250,000. In 2024, while the suit was allowed to proceed to court, Hart’s attempt to file a restraining order to get the video removed was rejected. In 2025, the case was settled.
Park Sojang, armed with her channel Taldeok Camp, soon became infamous in South Korea for her critical videos about the country’s celebrities. Her unsubstantiated claims earned her the title of “cyber wrecker.” Among her targets were BTS members V and Jungkook. In 2024, with support from the agency, the BTS members sued Park for defamation, requesting 90 million Korean won, or roughly $62,000 USD, in compensation. In 2025, on top of getting a two-year suspended sentence and fined around $139,000 for another celebrity defamation case, Park lost the lawsuit to V and Jungkook. She was ordered to pay around $53,000.
Created by married couple Ethan and Hila Klein, the YouTube channel H3H3Productions specializes in skits and reaction videos. However, this latter genre got the company in legal trouble. In 2016, Matt Hosseinzadeh, who operates the channel Matt Hoss Zone, contacted h3h3 after the channel created content featuring his video and asked them to take it down, which they allegedly refused to do. So, Hosseinzadeh filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement, claiming it couldn’t be deemed free use since H3H3 didn’t contribute any substantial material to his video. In 2017, the judge ruled in H3H3’s favor and ruled that the clip fell under free use.
Long before she ran into trouble with Kevin Hart, Cardi B issued a lawsuit against Tasha K in 2019. The suit for defamation took umbrage with Tasha for a video claiming Cardi had STDs, cheated on her then-husband, and used illegal substances. In 2022, the rapper won her case, incurring fines over $4 million for Tasha. However, the YouTube host then filed for bankruptcy, claiming she couldn’t afford to pay Cardi. As such, with allegations that Tasha was hiding her finances, the judge ruled that she must pay Cardi the cash. In 2025, the two parties agreed to a payment plan of $1.2 million over five years.
In 2020, David Dobrik’s Vlog Squad was filming a stunt in Utah. At one point, with Dobrik operating an excavator in the water, Jeff Wittek held onto a rope as it swung in a circle. The already recklessly fast Dobrik suddenly stopped the machine, causing Wittek to clatter into the excavator before falling into the water. Wittek sustained many severe injuries, nearly losing an eye. He released the footage on his YouTube channel in 2021. The following year, after Dobrik seemingly blamed Wittek for what happened, the “Jeff's Barbershop” host issued a lawsuit against his former friend for $10 million in damages. After numerous surgeries, in 2024, Wittek admitted he paid $90,000 out of pocket for the eye injury.
In late 2017, YouTube’s biggest scandal took place when Logan Paul uploaded footage from his trip to Japan. While at a forest infamous for people taking their own lives within, he released footage of one such person. Immediately, outrage rained down on Paul. This caused the film “Airplane Mode,” in which Paul had an acting and writing role, to delay the release until 2019 and lose its publishing deal with Google. In 2020, the movie’s production company, Planeless Pictures, filed a $3 million lawsuit against Paul, claiming he deliberately destroyed the film’s release and cost them money. In 2024, shortly before the case was set to go to court, the two parties agreed to a settlement.
Did we miss any other YouTube videos that led to lawsuits? Let us know in the comments.
Copycat Suit
Alyssa SheilThis lawsuit has the potential to change the game for influencers forever. On various social media sites, including YouTube, Alyssa Sheil is an influencer who orders loads from Amazon for her videos. She also tends to favor beige aesthetics and similar styles, earning the nickname “Clean Girl.” This pushed Sheil into conflict with influencer Sydney Nicole Gifford, who claims she was stealing her brand. In 2024, Gifford issued a suit against Sheil for copyright infringement. She claimed she met Sheil in 2023 at an event. Gifford was soon blocked online by Sheil and then allegedly began following a similar style. If this lawsuit goes to trial, it could change the landscape for how copyright is handled involving influencers.
Nintendo's Piracy Lawsuit
Every Game GuruNintendo is well-known for taking action against those it accuses of infringing on its intellectual property. Yet, if the allegations are true, it’s a pretty straightforward case against Jesse Keighin and his Every Game Guru brand. In 2024, Nintendo issued a lawsuit against him for streaming pirated games on his YouTube channel and other services, including games that were not yet officially released. The video game giants also claimed Keighin had told his followers how to pirate the games. The games involved include “The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom,” “Mario & Luigi Brothership,” and “Pikmin 4.” Nintendo also issued takedown notices, which led to Keighin to delete many of his accounts.
Mountains of Lawsuits
The ACE FamilyOnce one of the biggest family channels on the platform, The ACE Family fell from grace in their personal lives as one legal issue popped up. In 2021, Catherine McBroom was issued with a lawsuit by TBL Cosmetics for trying to stage a coup. LivexLive issued a suit against Austin McBroom for a breach of contract after hosting an influencer boxing event. That case was settled in 2022. At the same time, the McBroom house was foreclosed on and put up for auction. In 2023, the ACE Family channel stopped posting on YouTube. The following year, Austin and Catherine split up. But the legal issues weren’t done. In 2024, Austin was sued by Brittney Collinson for entering her house without consent for videos.
Predator Hunter Sued
Anxiety WarAnother genre of YouTube content is vigilantism, where creators will attempt to get justice against someone while recording them. One such channel was Zach Sweers’s Anxiety War, which targeted predators by pretending to be children online. One of the subjects for a video was Zachary Snoeyink. In 2016, Snoeyink issued a lawsuit against Sweers despite being criminally charged with attempting to meet up with what he believed was a minor. Snoeyink’s lawsuit made several accusations against Swears, including slander, invading privacy, and claims Sweers had edited footage to make Snoeyink look worse. Alastaire Kolk followed with a similar lawsuit before both cases were settled. However, Swears’s evidence was used in the criminal case against Snoeyink. He was sentenced to two years of probation.
Clinton Copyright Case
Sargon of AkkadBest known for her YouTube channel Akilah Obviously, Akilah Hughes recorded footage of Hilary Clinton at the Presidential election night party in 2016. However, she then saw her footage was used by the controversial YouTuber Carl Benjamin on his Sargon of Akkad channel for a video titled “SJW Levels of Awareness.” In response, Hughes issued a suit against Benjamin for copyright infringement in 2017. In 2020, the judge dismissed Hughes’s claim and ruled that Benjamin using the video clip was acceptable under “fair use.” As a result, Hughes had to pay his legal fees and costs, which were nearly $39,000.
Bushfire Blame
friendlyjordiesFrom 2019 to 2020, Black Summer took place in Australia, where bushfires ran rampant as properties were destroyed and hundreds of lives were lost. After the devastation, Jordan Shanks, better known as friendlyjordies, took to YouTube to blame politician John Barilaro for the fires and accuse him of corruption. Shanks also mocked Barilaro’s Italian heritage at events by dressing up as Mario. Barilaro filed a lawsuit against Shanks for defamation and Google for not removing the videos. Then, controversy arose when Shanks’s producer Kristo Langker was arrested for harassment, bringing accusations Barilaro was lying. The Shanks lawsuit was settled in 2021. Shortly after, Barilaro resigned from politics, blaming the Shanks scandal as the cause. In 2022, Google had to pay Barilaro $715,000.
Reward Refusal
Ryan LeslieWhile on tour in Germany in 2010, Ryan Leslie’s laptop, which contained intellectual property, was stolen from his car. In response, the musician put out a video asking for it back, offering a reward of $1 million. Amazingly, the laptop was found by local garage owner Armin Augstein, who returned it to Leslie. However, the intellectual property was missing. As such, the musician refused to pay the reward. In 2012, after Augstein sued and won, Leslie had to pay the $1 million plus $180,000 in interest. Leslie then attempted to file for bankruptcy, leading to more legal issues. In 2017, Leslie agreed to forfeit the rights to his music catalog until the fees to Augstein were paid.
Parody Problem
Matt D'AvellaAs part of his course at the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania, Matt D'Avella teamed up with his brother Mark to poke fun at gangsta rap with the parody song “Produce Paradise” in 2007. While working at an A&P store, the duo, calling themselves Fresh Beets, rapped about working in a grocery store. However, some lines upset their employers. At one point, the brothers imply they urinate on items if a customer is rude. Rather than enjoy the clear parody and the free publicity, A&P fired the D'Avellas and issued a $1 million lawsuit against them, demanding they scrub the video from the Internet. In 2008, the brothers reportedly settled the case by removing the video. However, it can still be found online.
USC Lawsuit
Eric Kanevsky & Yuguo BaiBeing a practical joke content creator can be a slippery slope. Often, they end up going too far, as was the case for Eric Kanevsky and Yuguo Bai. The duo worked together on a video at the University of Southern California in 2022. As students were in a lecture about the atrocities during World War II, Kanevsky walked in as his Russian Mafia persona. Bai, on the other hand, came in as Hugo Boss, who made the uniforms for Germany at the time. This sparked mass panic among the students as they feared for their lives and left quickly. USC was livid and issued a lawsuit and a restraining order against Kanevsky and Bai, which was granted.
Speculating About Kiely Rodni
Ryan UpchurchIn 2022, teenager Kiely Rodni vanished on her way back from a party in Truckee, California. For two weeks, her family desperately searched for her. Unfortunately, Rodni’s body and her car were found in a lake after an accidental crash. With the rise of true crime influencers, Ryan Upchurch was one such person to jump on the case. However, he released various videos claiming that Rodni didn’t exist and that it was a scheme by the family to raise money from crowdfunding sites. Understandably, this caused outrage. On top of a petition created calling for Upchurch’s removal from YouTube, Rodni’s family also issued a lawsuit against him for defamation. In 2024, the suit was given a green light by a judge to proceed.
The Wrong Chris Hansen
Repzion & Chris HansenKnown for creating YouTube skits, the wheels of James Jackson’s career as Onision came off in 2019 as allegations about grooming came to light. This led to Daniel Sulzbach, AKA Repzion, making videos about Jackson, criticizing his behavior. Best known for his “To Catch a Predator” series, Chris Hansen, now operating a YouTube channel, approached Jackson’s home in 2020 to discuss the allegations. Instead, Jackson called the cops and later filed a lawsuit against Hansen and Sulzbach for harassment. However, another Chris Hansen was reportedly served with the lawsuit, and wrote to the judge asking for the suit to be dismissed. In response, Jackson dropped the case. In 2023, Jackson was handed a lawsuit for allegedly using his channel for grooming.
The FTX Lawsuit
VariousAt its peak, FTX was one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchange companies around. With the influx of cash, the firm signed a lot of celebrities to endorse its services. This included several YouTubers, such as Kevin Paffrath, Brian Jung, and Erika Kullberg. In 2022, FTX filed for bankruptcy. It was soon discovered that the higher-ups in the firm, including co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, were involved in massive fraud. As a result, many customers lost their money. In 2023, eight YouTubers who had promoted FTX in their videos were issued with a $1 billion class action lawsuit for misleading their audiences. Tom Nash and Paffrath soon settled their cases.
The Copyright Case
Jukin MediaRay William Johnson created the YouTube series “Equals Three,” which examined viral videos and commented on them. It quickly made him one of the platform's biggest stars, as the channel was the first to hit 5 million subscribers. However, in 2014, Jukin Media, which licenses online videos, issued a lawsuit against Johnson for using their clips. The group also demanded that 41 videos be removed. While a judge seemed to agree with Johnson in 2015, in 2016, the trial got underway. Once the legal teams made their closing arguments, Johnson and Jukin Media settled the case. For Johnson, this was seemingly the best decision, as reportedly the jury was set to take Jukin Media’s side.
Digital Homicide's Fury
Jim SterlingJames Stephanie Sterling, best known for her YouTube channel Jim Sterling, is an influencer in video game journalism. Well, in 2014, she turned her attention to the game “The Slaughtering Grounds” by the company Digital Homicide. Sterling slammed the product, calling it one of the year’s worst games and criticizing it for using assets from Google Images. She also claimed the company targeted any criticism by deleting negative comments and banning players. In 2016, Digital Homicide issued a lawsuit against Sterling for defamation for $10.8 million, rising to $11.6 million with individual claims. The company then increased the demand to $15 million. However, after Digital Homicide had folded, the suit was dismissed with prejudice in 2017.
Kevin Hart's Ex-PA Allegations
Tasha KKnown for discussing celebrity stories with her channel UnWineWithTashaK, Tasha K has ruffled famous feathers. Several times, this has caused the law to get involved. In 2023, Tasha spoke to Kevin Hart’s former personal assistant, Miesha Shakes, who worked for him for three years. During the chat, Shakes claimed Hart had a gambling problem and that she’d had an affair with the married actor. Hart soon issued a lawsuit against Shakes and Tasha for defamation and extortion after she allegedly offered to not publish the interview if he paid her $250,000. In 2024, while the suit was allowed to proceed to court, Hart’s attempt to file a restraining order to get the video removed was rejected. In 2025, the case was settled.
BTS Sue for Defamation
Taldeok CampPark Sojang, armed with her channel Taldeok Camp, soon became infamous in South Korea for her critical videos about the country’s celebrities. Her unsubstantiated claims earned her the title of “cyber wrecker.” Among her targets were BTS members V and Jungkook. In 2024, with support from the agency, the BTS members sued Park for defamation, requesting 90 million Korean won, or roughly $62,000 USD, in compensation. In 2025, on top of getting a two-year suspended sentence and fined around $139,000 for another celebrity defamation case, Park lost the lawsuit to V and Jungkook. She was ordered to pay around $53,000.
H3H3 vs. Matt Hosseinzadeh
H3H3ProductionsCreated by married couple Ethan and Hila Klein, the YouTube channel H3H3Productions specializes in skits and reaction videos. However, this latter genre got the company in legal trouble. In 2016, Matt Hosseinzadeh, who operates the channel Matt Hoss Zone, contacted h3h3 after the channel created content featuring his video and asked them to take it down, which they allegedly refused to do. So, Hosseinzadeh filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement, claiming it couldn’t be deemed free use since H3H3 didn’t contribute any substantial material to his video. In 2017, the judge ruled in H3H3’s favor and ruled that the clip fell under free use.
Cardi B's Defamation Lawsuit
Tasha KLong before she ran into trouble with Kevin Hart, Cardi B issued a lawsuit against Tasha K in 2019. The suit for defamation took umbrage with Tasha for a video claiming Cardi had STDs, cheated on her then-husband, and used illegal substances. In 2022, the rapper won her case, incurring fines over $4 million for Tasha. However, the YouTube host then filed for bankruptcy, claiming she couldn’t afford to pay Cardi. As such, with allegations that Tasha was hiding her finances, the judge ruled that she must pay Cardi the cash. In 2025, the two parties agreed to a payment plan of $1.2 million over five years.
The Vlog Squad Stunt Disaster
David DobrikIn 2020, David Dobrik’s Vlog Squad was filming a stunt in Utah. At one point, with Dobrik operating an excavator in the water, Jeff Wittek held onto a rope as it swung in a circle. The already recklessly fast Dobrik suddenly stopped the machine, causing Wittek to clatter into the excavator before falling into the water. Wittek sustained many severe injuries, nearly losing an eye. He released the footage on his YouTube channel in 2021. The following year, after Dobrik seemingly blamed Wittek for what happened, the “Jeff's Barbershop” host issued a lawsuit against his former friend for $10 million in damages. After numerous surgeries, in 2024, Wittek admitted he paid $90,000 out of pocket for the eye injury.
The Japanese Forest
Logan PaulIn late 2017, YouTube’s biggest scandal took place when Logan Paul uploaded footage from his trip to Japan. While at a forest infamous for people taking their own lives within, he released footage of one such person. Immediately, outrage rained down on Paul. This caused the film “Airplane Mode,” in which Paul had an acting and writing role, to delay the release until 2019 and lose its publishing deal with Google. In 2020, the movie’s production company, Planeless Pictures, filed a $3 million lawsuit against Paul, claiming he deliberately destroyed the film’s release and cost them money. In 2024, shortly before the case was set to go to court, the two parties agreed to a settlement.
Did we miss any other YouTube videos that led to lawsuits? Let us know in the comments.
