Cardi B awarded $1.25 million in libel lawsuit against YouTuber
The blogger Tasha K made claims in 2019 that the rapper was a prostitute who had contracted sexually transmitted infections
Aux News Cardi B
There’s nothing in this world Cardi B likes more than checks, and she’s due to receive a big one after a federal jury awarded her $1.25 million in damages in a libel lawsuit. The rapper filed the suit in 2019 after celebrity gossip blogger Tasha K posted more than 20 videos that spread “malicious rumors” about her, including that she was a prostitute who had contracted sexually transmitted infections and used cocaine.
Cardi B, real name Belcalis Almanzar, sued both Youtuber Tasha K and a former friend Starmarie Ebony Jones for the videos which garnered millions of views. These videos were shared throughout 2018 to Tasha K’s (real name Latasha Kebe) to an audience of over one million followers.
Some of the other rumors spread in these videos included that the rapper had mouth herpes (calling her “Herpes B”), “fucked herself with beer bottles on fucking stripper stages,” and that her child would be born with intellectual disabilities.
Both Kebe and Jones were found guilty of libel, slander, and invasion of privacy in two separate cases, as Jones lives in New York and Kebe lives in Georgia.
Libel cases are only won if the plaintiff can prove the defendant “intentionally or recklessly disregarded the truth” in their claims. During Kebe’s testimony, she told jurors she knowingly published the lies in order monetize her videos and help grow her business. Many of the videos still remain on Kebe’s YouTube page, unWINEwithTashaK, despite a cease and desist filed by Almanzar in 2018.
The “WAP” rapper stated the videos left her “extremely suicidal” and that “only an evil person could do that.” During her testimony, Almanzar stated she suffered from fatigue, anxiety, weight loss, and migraines due to the swirling rumors. She also claimed the videos pooled over into her Instagram comments, as users questioned if the mother should kiss her child on the lips in reference to the herpes rumor.
The rapper was awarded $1 million in damages and $250,000 for medical expenses related to the slander.
73 Comments
If this contributes to YouTube sucking slightly less it is a step in the right direction though there is a very long way to go
Not all You Tube is bad. There is a really good account called Legal Eagle which is why I understand how high the burden for Cardi was in this case being that she is a public figure.
Yeah- “Legal Eagle” is among the light that is the darkness that is sometimes YouTube.
It’s saved me thousands of dollars in repair costs for things that turned out to be easy to fix.
This woman was on YouTube but I think the sentiment applies to all social media and similar platforms. Making shit up about people for clicks and subscribers will get you abused in court.
YouTube has saved my hair. Those bleach fail videos make me not want to ever bleach my hair at home.
There really is a lot of good content on YouTube. Unfortunately it has to share the platform with this kind of garbage, but thanfully I have trained the algorithm never to suggest this crap to me. Took years.
I have started watching the “Nerd of the Rings” series of YouTube videos about deep-dive Tolkien stuff & really enjoying them
real name Belcalis AlmanzarI had never read her real name. She definitely could’ve been a villain in Harry Potter.
Also, I’m glad she won. As has been so frequently stated in recent years, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. There is a very large distance between holding people like this accountable for Alex Jones-level lies with intent to harm in their own self-interest and fears of government censorship or potential chilling effects on the press that would be concerning.
“That’s not a name; that’s a bad Scrabble hand!”
You can’t spell Belcalis without l-i-b-e-l-s.
The funny thing is that generally rappers have these cool pseudonyms and then you find out that their real name is something boring like Carlton Smith, but with Cardi her real name is way cooler than her stage name.
How were you able to pull a quote directly from the article? I don’t see any button to do so.
“Libel cases are only won if the prosecutor…”Plaintiff, not prosecutor. Libel is a civil action and “prosecutor” is the government’s lawyer in a criminal matter.
lmao, copy editing a tv club article
Good way to keep yourself busy.
I hope she also has to pay Cardi’s legal fees.
I thought a tuber was a potato.
You tuber!
Yes, but a “youtuber” is a potato you own.
Youtuber, I tuber, we ALL fucking tuber!
Tuber? I don’t even know her!
Not all tubers are potatoes. It’s a topic worth digging into, unearthing the truth, so to speak.
Look at this darling little man. His name is Leonardo.
Wasn’t he Clyde Crashcub’s assistant ?
Yes, from The Alvin Show. He looks so happy to be there.
It’s not like she isn’t extremely trashy either way, though.
Wow, what an amazing misogynistic take you’ve come up with! Maybe try shutting the fuck up a little more often?
Hey, there ya go!
I’m very impressed that, as a piece of shit, you gained sentience and with it, the ability to type. Bravo!
Pretty mild allegation but you’ll still have to pony up $10,000.
Maybe she can drug me and take it from me while I’m passed out, as she used to do to strangers routinely by her own admission.
Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.
I just like saying “WAP rapper”.
I feel like we could work the phrase into a newer update to “Walk This Way.”
During Kebe’s testimony, she told jurors she knowingly published the lies in order monetize her videos and help grow her businessWh- why would… wait. Why would she go to trial if that was her testimony? I’m gonna be thinking about this all day!
A lifetime of watching Law and Order has taught me wrongdoers always break down on the stand and tell the whole truth.
I don’t have access to the court transcript, but thanks to you, I can’t stop thinking about her being questioned by an increasingly belligerent (and almost certainly kind of drunk) Sam Waterston.
McCoy’s having none of this Kebe woman’s bullshit.
It might just be that Cardi and her legal team were not interested in settling for less than their demand, and would rather have the judge give a lower order than to negotiate with the defendant(s). Of course I’m just guessing. I honestly haven’t read up on it so this is a true-to-Internet expression of unfounded opinion.
Yeah, could be – she doesn’t need the money per se, so it could have been “let’s make her fucking admit it on the stand.” Which I absolutely respect.
They need to go after the anti-Megan Markle trolls next
That makes more sense than what I was thinking. I figured they just couldn’t reach a settlement agreement. Maybe Cardi wanted this woman on public record admitting to lying for views. Kinda seems like her kind of move.
I mean, she probably had no choice. She likely couldn’t pay anything remotely close to what the plaintiff would accept, and a judgment for CB on paper is worth a lot more than whatever the defendant could offer.
I guess she thought that slander in the service of creating an income stream would be seen as a justifiable avenue in pursuing the American dream.
Seriously, couldn’t she have just said “I thought it was true”, and how does anyone disprove that?
Demand that they produce any type of evidence that would have led them to believe that it was true. When they cannot, it might not be the slam-dunk of them admitting on the stand that they were lying in order to financially benefit, but it makes it a lot easier to suggest that they were.
It’s also perjury, so she may have just been cutting her (admittedly sizeable) losses.
She has to tell and broadcast outrageous lies to make a living, you think she’s bright?
Meh, bet they never pay and file bankruptcy so Cardi doesn’t get a dime.
Of course. But it’s still worthwhile for B to have an official legal adjudication that these rumors were false.
Unlike the ones where she drugged men and robbed them!
I wonder why none ever came forward to press charges and have her arrested? Surely the dudes who clearly corroborated her taking advantage of them explained why. Oh we’ve never heard from one? Or maybe she was bullshitting for street cred and exaggerating her exploits?You believe everything rappers say?
Man, 3% of sexual assaults get reported and you’re out here asking why. Wild.
Brah.Dudes aren’t gonna admit to solicitation just to recover a few hundred they got rolled for. That shit gets you put on the sex offender registry.
You’d lose that bet. Damages arising from willful or malicious injury are non-dischargeable under bankruptcy law. Not saying it will ever be paid, but the debt will likely follow these folks around the rest of their lives.
It is really not that cut and dry. You have to prove willful and malicious injury, both not just one or the other. Over the years my employer has had a few of these cases. Some have been discharged some haven’t. I would be curious to see how this one would go when argued in court.
Cardi B, real name Belcalis Almanzar… She is the only Rapper whose rapper name is less weird than their real name.
Some of the other rumors spread in these videos included that the rapper
had mouth herpes (calling her “Herpes B”), “fucked herself with beer
bottles on fucking stripper stages,” and that her child would be born
with intellectual disabilities.Honestly, this reminds me of high school.“You know Suzie, that freshman with the big stripper titties? I heard she just got her fifth abortion! And also that she sneaks into the locker room on the weekends to film lesbian shower videos.”Sure Jan, those sound like actual things that happened.
The shower videos part was true. I was the key grip on most of those productions.
I bet you were.
That’s how I got my I.A.T.S.E. card.
Lawyers among us – how much/how does she collect in cases like this? I am guessing that the defendants do not have that much in assets, or they would not have been stooping to this.
I think it’s unlikely B collects much, but it’s not impossible. YouTubers can make a surprisingly stupid amount of money.
This woman’s almost certainly heading for a personal bankruptcy.
Wouldn’t help. This would be nondischargeable.
Says the guy who went to Trump Law. In fairness that’s probably the best school in the country for bankruptcy law.
It was almost our entire curriculum, except for that one day of contracts class, in which we learned honoring contracts is for losers.
Moral bankruptcy she passed about 4 miles back
Considering what a seemingly bottomless number of people will do for internet fame, that seems to be the price of admission.I also REALLY wish media would stop referring to people as Influencers, since the vast, vast majority are just narcissists pretending anyone gives a shit what they like.
Despite the comments about filing for bankruptcy, in reality the judgment will probably follow the defendant for life. Damages for willful or malicious acts are not discharged in bankruptcy. Her wages could be garnished for the rest of her life, plus her property could be seized. Now, whether Cardi bothers to pursue that is another issue.
Cardi’s getting all their ring lights and Gamer Chairs
TashaK is the Wendy Williams of YouTube; she’s messy as hell and I’m glad she lost.
JC, there is no prosecutor in civil suits. Sheesh.