Defamatory claims made by a 15-year-old online affecting real life collaborations

r/

22 female, location: California USA.

Hi, long story short, a couple of teenagers all 15 and under have decided to label me as a REALLY bad criminal with very minimal “proof” such as blurry screenshots of text messages that do not come from me and art pieces I have made that they claim were 18+ that were sent to them by me (it was not 18+ art). Because I do have quite a following, people recognize me off YouTube, and someone had been able to connect this account to my name, address, school, and picture (albeit through stalking and doxxing).

Someone had offered to make me a free costume that usually goes to market for $5000+ just because they thought I was neat and wanted to practice their skills anyway, but because of these fake screenshots, this person is considering dropping the offer even though materials were bought and production already started.

The issue is that I know nothing about these kids. I just know the main two people who worked on the video live in New York iirc and Massachusetts. I would not know if a lawsuit were even possible with such little information, the fact that they are minors in their state, and because I didn’t pay for the commission worth $1900 AUD on my collaborator’s page.

I have already reported these claims to the site, but they are still up. I have addressed them, but this just sparked a LOT more defamatory videos to be made. Is there anything I can do here?

Comments

  1. prototypist Avatar

    Not knowing a lot about the industry, you might review if the free costume offer was also part of this cyberbullying / stalking? Consider if they have asked you for personal information.