An Abbotsford YouTuber has been ordered to pay $350,000 in damages for defaming a Texas business owner.
In the summer of 2022, he had more than 200,000 subscribers and his videos attracted tens of thousands of views, court documents state. The lawsuit also said that Dong had accused Pham and his business of fraudulently manipulating online reviews and that Pham was an illegal immigrant to the U.S.“The defamatory statements went viral on the internet and have been accessed, downloaded and read by many persons all over the world,” Justice Francis said in her ruling.
In October 2022, Dong started a petition on the website Change.org, accusing Pham of human trafficking, money laundering and fraud, Francis said. Dong argued at trial that nothing he said about Pham or Fastboy was defamatory, that the statements were true, and that Pham suffered no damage to his business.