Bishop T.D. Jakes Files Motion Over AI Misinformation on YouTube

The lawyer for Bishop T.D. Jakes wants the court to intervene in the misinformation related to Sean “Diddy” Combs that his client is said to be experiencing because of YouTube.

NBC News reports that Jakes’ attorney Dustin Pusch filed a motion yesterday (Dec. 19) in the Northern District of California about seeking to subpoena YouTube’s parent company, Google, to fork over information about the people behind the YouTube accounts that he says are making false claims about him.

In the motion, the filing that goes after the YouTubers (based in Kenya, the Philippines, Pakistan, and South Africa according to their “About” sections) covers the fact that there’s AI-generated misinformation in them that’s created by AI tools such as fake images and voice overs.

These videos, with their AI-generated content, can be monetized by creators — bringing both them and YouTube large profits while spreading misinformation that can be damaging to people like Jakes. According to the motion, Jakes has had hundreds of videos made about him on YouTube in the past year, spreading information about his alleged involvement with Diddy's legal issues over the years.

“These YouTubers are purportedly using the sordid and sensational allegations revolving around Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to attack, humiliate, degrade, and defame Bishop Jakes—and many other prominent black celebrities—with manufactured claims that he is guilty of the same crimes and other lewd and repulsive conduct as Mr. Combs,” the motion reads. “In other words, YouTubers are using Bishop Jakes’s prominence as clickbait to attract unwitting users to view their knowingly false videos for their (and possibly other foreign companies’) financial gain.”

The motion explains that this legal action follows attempts to get together with YouTube’s legal counsel about this situation that have happened over the last year.

If this motion is successful, Jakes could pursue defamation lawsuits against the people that created the YouTube channels by receiving information such as their email and IP addresses.

YouTube recently announced that it was strengthening its efforts to combat “egregious clickbait.” In a recent post on Google’s India Blog, the company wrote that it will start by “removing content that violates this policy without issuing a strike” in India before rolling out this change to other countries in coming months.

Last year after speculation about his ties to Diddy started circulating online, Jake’s team released a statement denying the claims. “Recent claims circulating on pockets of social media about Bishop T.D. Jakes are unequivocally false and baseless,” said Jordan A. Hora, executive director of public relations and communications for the T.D. Jakes Group, T.D. Jakes Ministries and The Potter’s House.

"What has always been true, in the words of the late Pastor Charles H. Spurgeon, ‘If you want the truth to go round the world you must hire an express train to pull it; but if you want a lie to go round the world it will fly; it is as light as a feather, and a breath will carry it," he continued.