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.
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00:00We knew this was Kevin's MO. This is what he does to shut people down.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're examining the most infamous times videos released by
00:10YouTubers cost another party to issue a lawsuit for one reason or another.
00:14The idea was to just do another fun vlog, go camp for a night, and make an entertaining
00:19piece of content in a forest. Copycat suit. Alyssa Sheil. This lawsuit has the potential
00:26to change the game for influencers forever. On various social media sites, including
00:38YouTube, Alyssa Sheil is an influencer who orders loads from Amazon for her videos. She also tends
00:44to favor beige aesthetics and similar styles, earning the nickname Clean Girl. This pushed
00:49Sheil into conflict with influencer Sydney Nicole Gifford, who claimed she was stealing her brand.
00:54In 2024, Gifford issued a suit against Sheil for copyright infringement. She claimed she
00:58met Sheil in 2023 at an event. Gifford was soon blocked online by Sheil, and then allegedly
01:03began following a similar style. If this lawsuit goes to trial, it would change the landscape
01:08for how copyright is handled involving influencers.
01:10It is an unprecedented case, and it could really change the content creator world and the economy,
01:16because influencers can now be beholden to copyright law, and they would have to be careful
01:24how they arrange things. If one person owns an aesthetic...
01:28Nintendo's piracy lawsuit. Every game guru. Nintendo is well known for taking action against
01:33those it accuses of infringing on its intellectual property. Yet, if the allegations are true,
01:37it's a pretty straightforward case against Jesse Keehan and his every game guru plan.
01:42Video game company Nintendo, they're suing a man in Colorado for millions of dollars.
01:46In 2024, Nintendo issued a lawsuit against him for streaming pirated games on his YouTube channel,
01:51and other services, including games that were not yet officially released.
01:55The video game giants also claimed Keehan had told his followers how to pirate the games.
01:59The company says that he streamed pirated, leaked video games on YouTube,
02:04Discord, Twitch, and other platforms. The lawsuit claims that the pirating started as early as 2022.
02:10The games involved include The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, Mario and Luigi Brothership,
02:14and Pikmin 4. Nintendo also issued takedown notices, which led Keehan to delete many of his accounts.
02:21Mountains of lawsuits. The Ace Family. Once one of the biggest family channels on the platform,
02:26the Ace Family fell from grace in their personal lives as one legal issue popped up.
02:30We said we were going to take a break off YouTube and you guys didn't want to believe us.
02:34And we took a break.
02:36In 2021, Catherine McBroom was issued with a lawsuit by TBL Cosmetics for trying to stage a coup.
02:41LiveX Live issued a suit against Austin McBroom for a breach of contract after hosting an influencer
02:47boxing event. That case was settled in 2022. At the same time, the McBroom house was foreclosed on
02:52and put up for auction. In 2023, the Ace Family channel stopped posting on YouTube.
02:57The following year, Austin and Catherine split up.
02:59I obviously knew what was going to come with the separation, right? I knew it wasn't going to be
03:06all positive vibes.
03:07But the legal issues weren't done. In 2024, Austin was sued by Brittany Collinson for entering her house
03:13without consent for videos. Predatory Hunter sued Anxiety War
03:17Another genre of YouTube content is vigilantism, where creators will attempt to get justice against
03:22someone while recording them. One such channel was Zach Sweer's Anxiety War,
03:27which targeted predators by pretending to be children online.
03:30Why? Why?
03:33One of the subjects for her video was Zachary Snowink. In 2016, Snowink issued a lawsuit against
03:39Sweers despite being criminally charged with attempting to meet up with what he believed
03:42was a minor. Snowink's lawsuit made several accusations against Sweers, including slander,
03:47invading privacy, and claimed Sweers had edited footage to make Snowink look worse.
03:52Alistar Kolk followed with a similar lawsuit before both cases were settled.
03:56However, Sweers' evidence was used in the criminal case against Snowink.
04:00He was sentenced to two years of probation.
04:01The judge put Snowink on probation for two years and ordered him to perform 120 hours of community service.
04:07Clinton Copyright Case, Sargon of Akkad
04:10Best known for her YouTube channel, Akilah Obviously, Akilah Hughes recorded footage of
04:14Hillary Clinton at the presidential election night party in 2016.
04:18Hi YouTube, it's Akilah Obviously.
04:20However, she then saw her footage was used by the controversial YouTuber Carl Benjamin
04:25on his Sargon of Akkad channel for a video titled,
04:28SJW Levels of Awareness.
04:30In response, Hughes issued a suit against Benjamin for copyright infringement in 2017.
04:34It started out as a very exciting evening and, like, full of hope that we would be, like,
04:40in a historic moment under a glass ceiling, like, getting to be in the room where it's happening
04:45with Hillary.
04:46In 2020, the judge dismissed Hughes' claim and ruled that Benjamin using the video clip
04:50was acceptable under fair use. As a result, Hughes had to pay his legal fees and costs,
04:55which were nearly $39,000.
04:57Bushfire blame, Friendly Geordies From 2019 to 2020, Black Summer took place
05:03in Australia, where bushfires ran rampant as properties were destroyed and hundreds of lives
05:08were lost. After the devastation, Jordan Shanks, better known as Friendly Geordies,
05:13took to YouTube to blame politician John Barilaro for the fires and accuse him of corruption.
05:18It's obvious when you look at Giovanni's decisions and comments that he's a moron,
05:22but I at least thought he'd be smart enough to come up with an excuse that is a little better than,
05:26man.
05:27Bruh, it's not the government's fault, it's the, uh, government's fault.
05:31Shanks also mocked Barilaro's Italian heritage at events by dressing up as Mario. Barilaro filed
05:36a lawsuit against Shanks for defamation and Google for not removing the videos. Then,
05:41controversy arose when Shanks' producer, Christo Lanker, was arrested for harassment,
05:46bringing accusations Barilaro was lying. The Shanks lawsuit was settled in 2021.
05:51Shortly after, Barilaro resigned from politics, blaming the Shanks scandal as the cause.
05:56In 2022, Google had to pay Barilaro $715,000.
06:01Right up until last week, Google planned to mount a number of defenses. They have since been dropped.
06:07The courts heard the internet giant offered to settle last year, but Barilaro says he's
06:13never received an apology, adding, that would have gone a long way.
06:18Reward refusal, Ryan Leslie. While on tour in Germany in 2010, Ryan Leslie's laptop,
06:23which contained intellectual property, was stolen from his car. In response,
06:27the musician put out a video asking for it back, offering a reward of $1 million.
06:31You put up, what is it, a million dollars?
06:33That's right.
06:34Uh, if someone could return your laptop, wasn't it?
06:36Yeah.
06:36And so that the laptop was returned without the songs?
06:40Without the intellectual property, so the drive that we received was corrupted,
06:44and we weren't able to retrieve the data.
06:46Amazingly, the laptop was found by local garage owner, Armin Augstein, who returned it to Leslie.
06:51However, the intellectual property was missing. As such, the musician refused to pay the award.
06:57In 2012, after Augstein sued and won, Leslie had to pay the $1 million, plus $180,000 in interest.
07:04Leslie then attempted to file for bankruptcy, leading to more legal issues.
07:08In 2017, Leslie agreed to forfeit the rights to his music catalog until the fees to Augstein were paid.
07:14I said, look, here, just take a portion of my old catalog and just chill over there.
07:20Stop coming after me for all types of other money.
07:23Take this as long as you're fine with that, because they realize,
07:26hey, look, the catalog is actually still generating money.
07:28I'm fine with that as a revenue stream if he doesn't want to give me a lump sum.
07:31Parody problem.
07:32Matt DiVella.
07:33As part of his course at the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania,
07:36Matt DiVella teamed up with his brother, Mark, to poke fun at gangster rap with the parody song
07:41Produced Paradise in 2007.
07:43The Fresh Beats, baby, you know what I mean. Supply the highest quality of every print.
07:49While working at an A&P store, the duo, calling themselves Fresh Beats,
07:53rapped about working in a grocery store. However, some lines upset their employers.
07:57At one point, the brothers implied they urinate on items if a customer is rude.
08:01Rather than enjoy the clear parody and the free publicity,
08:04A&P fired the DiVellas and issued a $1 million lawsuit against them,
08:08demanding they scrub the video from the internet.
08:10In 2008, the brothers reportedly settled the case by removing the video. However,
08:21it can still be found online.
08:23USC Lawsuit. Eric Konefsky and You Go By.
08:26Being a practical joke content creator can be a slippery slope. Often, they end up going too far,
08:31as was the case of Eric Konefsky and You Go By.
08:34It just happened to be a big coincidence. And on top of that, I'm Jewish myself. I actually moved
08:40to the US as a Jewish refugee because my grandpa was discriminated against.
08:45The duo worked together on a video at the University of Southern California in 2022.
08:49As students were in a lecture about the atrocities during World War II,
08:52Konefsky walked in as his Russian mafia persona.
08:55By, on the other hand, came in as Hugo Boss, who made the uniforms for Germany at the time.
09:00This sparked mass panic among the students as they feared for their lives and left quickly.
09:04We were just going to class and some man came in about 20 minutes late.
09:08This really big guy walked in and he started screaming about something.
09:13Another man came in with a briefcase. He was on the phone screaming about where the money was.
09:20USC was livid and issued a lawsuit and a restraining order against Konefsky and By, which was granted.
09:26Speculating about Keely Rodney. Ryan Upchurch.
09:29In 2022, teenager Keely Rodney vanished on her way back from a party in Truckee, California.
09:35For two weeks, her family desperately searched for her.
09:38Rodney was last seen at a party at the Prosser family campground near Truckee early Saturday mornings.
09:42Unfortunately, Rodney's body and her car were found in the lake after an accidental crash.
09:47With the rise of true crime influencers, Ryan Upchurch was one such person to jump on the case.
09:52However, he released various videos claiming that Rodney didn't exist
09:56and that it was a scheme by the family to raise money from crowdfunding sites.
09:59Why are y'all trying to cover it up so bad? What function do you got going on
10:03that involves this? What are you selling? What kind of money are you making?
10:06Understandably, this caused outrage. On top of a petition created calling for Upchurch's removal
10:11from YouTube, Rodney's family also issued a lawsuit against him for defamation. In 2024,
10:16the suit was given a green light by a judge to proceed.
10:19The Wrong Chris Hansen, Repzion, and Chris Hansen. Known for creating YouTube skits,
10:24the wheels of James Jackson's career as Onision came off in 2019 as allegations about grooming came
10:30to light. This led to Daniel Sulzbach, aka Repzion, making videos about Jackson, criticizing his behavior.
10:37Unlike my previous videos on Onision, this is a very, very serious video. This is not made with the
10:43intention of, here's the tea, grab some popcorn. This video is serious in nature.
10:48Best known for his To Catch a Predator series, Chris Hansen, now operating a YouTube channel,
10:53approached Jackson's home in 2020 to discuss the allegations. Instead, Jackson called the cops and
10:59later filed a lawsuit against Hansen and Sulzbach for harassment.
11:02He went to court filing his own motion for some sort of restraining order and it was dismissed.
11:10It was, you know, one of the goofiest things I've ever seen.
11:14However, another Chris Hansen was reportedly served with a lawsuit and wrote to the judge
11:19asking for the suit to be dismissed. In response, Jackson dropped the case. In 2023,
11:24Jackson was handed a lawsuit for allegedly using his channel for grooming. The FTX lawsuit, Various.
11:30At its peak, FTX was one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchange companies around.
11:35With the influx of cash, the firm signed a lot of celebrities to endorse its services.
11:39The lawsuit is essentially alleging that those folks, the people who suggested FTX,
11:45are responsible for fraud, in any way for fraud at FTX.
11:49This included YouTubers, such as Kevin Pathrath, Brian Jung, and Erica Kohlberg.
11:54In 2022, FTX filed for bankruptcy. It was soon discovered that the higher-ups in the firm,
12:00including co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Carolyn Ellison, were involved in massive fraud.
12:05As a result, many customers lost their money. In 2023, eight YouTubers who had promoted FTX in
12:11their videos were issued with a $1 billion class action lawsuit for misleading their audiences.
12:16Tom Nash and Pathrath soon settled their cases.
12:18The rest of these influencers are accused of promoting FTX and getting paid for it.
12:24It also accused them of not conducting adequate, if any, due diligence.
12:28The copyright case, Juken Media. Ray William Johnson created the YouTube series
12:33Equals 3, which examined viral videos and commented on them.
12:37So our first video, it's a cat video. Yeah, I know, you're already pissed off at me,
12:41but I don't want to hear it. It quickly made him one of the platform's biggest stars,
12:45as the channel was the first to hit 5 million subscribers. However, in 2014, Juken Media,
12:50which licenses online videos, issued a lawsuit against Johnson for using their clips.
12:55The group also demanded that 41 videos be removed. While a judge seemed to agree with Johnson in
13:002015, in 2016, the trial got underway. Once the legal teams made their closing arguments,
13:06Johnson and Juken Media settled the case.
13:09So where do we go from here?
13:10For Johnson, this was seemingly the best decision,
13:13as reportedly the jury was set to take Juken Media's side.
13:16Digital Homicide's Fury, Jim Sterling.
13:19James Stephanie Sterling, best known for her YouTube channel, Jim Sterling,
13:23is an influencer in video game journalism.
13:25There we are, another year in the bin.
13:29I'd say the bag, but that bag's just going in the bin.
13:33Well, in 2014, she turned her attention to the game,
13:36The Slaughtering Grounds, by the company Digital Homicide.
13:39Sterling slammed the product, calling it one of the year's worst games,
13:43and criticizing it for using assets from Google Images.
13:46She also claimed the company targeted any criticism by deleting negative comments and banning players.
13:51In 2016, Digital Homicide issued a lawsuit against Sterling for defamation for $10.8 million,
13:58rising to $11.6 million with individual claims. The company then increased the demand for $15 million.
14:04However, after Digital Homicide had folded, the suit was dismissed with prejudice in 2017.
14:09I don't find this lawsuit funny. It's not funny. It's disgusting. I think it's an incredibly despicable,
14:16underhanded attempt to undermine my free expression and stop me doing my legally protected job.
14:23Kevin Hart's ex-PA allegations. Tasha Kay.
14:26Known for discussing celebrity stories with her channel, Unwind with Tasha Kay.
14:30Tasha Kay has ruffled famous feathers.
14:33The longer he stays entangled with me, I'm sure there are other people that got their eyes on him.
14:39I'm the least of his worries. I do my little gossip, drink my little wine,
14:42talk about you, cheating on your wife. That's as far as it goes, bro. I ain't got nothing against you.
14:47I do this to everybody. This ain't malicious.
14:49Several times, this has caused the law to get involved. In 2023, Tasha spoke to Kevin Hart's former
14:55personal assistant, Misha Shakes, who worked for him for three years. During the chat,
15:00Shakes claimed Hart had a gambling problem and that she had an affair with a married actor.
15:04Hart soon issued a lawsuit against Shakes and Tasha for defamation and extortion after she
15:09allegedly offered to not publish the interview if he paid her $250,000.
15:13I've been reporting on Kevin for years. All that shit that was in that interview,
15:18we've been talking about that. It wasn't even an explosive interview because I had already put out
15:23that information. But to have somebody from his office, his corporate office, come sit down and
15:29say, yeah, girl. That's what happened.
15:32In 2022, while the suit was allowed to proceed to court, Hart's attempt to file a restraining
15:37order to get the video removed was rejected. In 2025, the case was settled.
15:41BTS sue for defamation, Taodok Camp. Park Sojung, armed with her channel, Taodok Camp,
15:48soon became infamous in South Korea for her critical videos about the country's celebrities.
15:52A 36-year-old YouTuber identified as Park has received a suspended prison sentence for posting
15:58malicious fake videos to faming celebrities and influencers.
16:01Her unsubstantiated claims earned her the title of cyberwrecker. Among her targets were BTS members
16:06V and Jungkook. In 2024, with support from the agency, the BTS members sued Park for defamation,
16:13requesting 90 million Korean won, or roughly 62,000 United States dollars, in compensation.
16:19In 2025, on top of getting a two-year suspended sentence and fined around $139,000 for another
16:25celebrity defamation case, Park lost the lawsuit to V and Jungkook. She was ordered to pay around $53,000.
16:32Related to the criminal charges made, the Incheon District Court this week sentenced Park to two
16:37years in prison, suspended for three years, for defamation and insulting celebrities.
16:42H3H3 vs. Matt Hossein Zadeh H3H3 Productions
16:46Created by married couple Ethan and Hila Klein, the YouTube channel H3H3 Productions
16:51specializes in skits and reaction videos. However, this latter genre got the company in legal trouble.
16:58Yes, we are being sued for copyright infringement, and it's been hanging over our lives like a cloud
17:04these past months. In 2016, Matt Hossein Zadeh, who operates the channel Matt Hoss Zone, contacted H3H3
17:11after the channel created content featuring his video and asked them to take it down, which they
17:15allegedly refused to do. So, Hossein Zadeh filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement, claiming it
17:21couldn't be deemed free use, since H3H3 didn't contribute any substantial material to his video.
17:26The only other thing I can tell you is that I'm gonna fight for my rights until the very end.
17:31In 2017, the judge ruled in H3H3's favor and ruled that the clip fell under free use.
17:37Cardi B's defamation lawsuit, Tasha Kay
17:40Long before she ran into trouble with Kevin Hart, Cardi B issued a lawsuit against Tasha Kay in 2019.
17:45In my opinion, I didn't do anything wrong. I interviewed somebody that she had dealings with,
17:52that girl said a lot of s**t, you know, and to me it was s**t, and it was right up my alley on my channel.
17:59The suit for defamation took umbrage with Tasha for a video claiming Cardi had STDs,
18:04cheated on her then-husband, and used illegal substances. In 2022, the rapper won her case,
18:10incurring fines over $4 million for Tasha. However, the YouTube host then filed for bankruptcy,
18:15claiming she couldn't afford to pay Cardi. As such, with allegations that Tasha was hiding
18:20her finances, the judge ruled that she must pay Cardi the cash.
18:23Were you astonished when you ended up losing?
18:25I was surprised because I was just like… but I really wasn't surprised because
18:31the judge had already kept out a lot of stuff because everything that I commented on
18:36came out of her mouth.
18:37In 2025, the two parties agreed to a payment plan of $1.2 million over 5 years.
18:43The Vlog Squad Stunt Disaster – David Dobrik
18:46In 2020, David Dobrik's Vlog Squad was filming a stunt in Utah.
18:50At one point, with Dobrik operating an excavator in the water,
18:53Jeff Wittek held onto a rope as it swung in a circle.
18:56I just jumped out of a plane 20 times. What's the worst that could happen?
19:00The already recklessly fast Dobrik suddenly stopped the machine,
19:03causing Wittek to clatter into the excavator before falling into the water.
19:07Wittek sustained many severe injuries, nearly losing an eye.
19:10He released the footage on his YouTube channel in 2021. The following year, after Dobrik seemingly
19:15blamed Wittek for what happened, the Jeff's Barbershop host issued a lawsuit against his
19:19former friend for $10 million in damages. After numerous surgeries in 2024, Wittek admitted he paid
19:26$90,000 out of pocket for the eye injury.
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20:00The Japanese forest, Logan Paul. In late 2017, YouTube's biggest scandal took place
20:06when Logan Paul uploaded footage from his trip to Japan.
20:09It doesn't make any sense. And I believe it happened for a reason. And I think that reason is
20:16so I could take this experience, learn from it, spread the message the right way.
20:22While at a forest infamous for people taking their own lives within, he released footage of one such
20:27person. Immediately, outrage rained down on Paul. This caused the film Airplane Mode, in which Paul
20:33had an acting and writing role to delay the release until 2019 and lose its publishing deal with Google.
20:38In 2020, the movie's production company, Planeless Pictures, filed a $3 million lawsuit against Paul,
20:44claiming he deliberately destroyed the film's release and cost them money.
20:47I think we got off on the wrong foot.
20:48In 2024, shortly before the case was set to go to court, the two parties agreed to a settlement.
20:53Did we miss any other YouTube videos that led to lawsuits? Let us know in the comments.
20:58Were you astonished when you ended up losing?
21:00I was surprised because I was just like, but I really wasn't surprised because
21:05the judge had already kept out a lot of stuff because everything that I commented on
21:10came out of her mouth.
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