A lawyer representing celebrity pastor Bishop TD Jakes is pursuing a new effort to combat AI-generated misinformation posted about his client on YouTube, saying the platform doesn’t effectively support its policies.
On Thursday, Jakes’ attorney, Dustin Pusch, filed a motion in the Northern District of California seeking to subpoena YouTube’s parent company, Google, for sharing information about the identities of four YouTube account holders. According to the accounts’ “About” sections on YouTube, they are allegedly located in Pakistan, South Africa, the Philippines and Kenya.
The motion alleges that the accounts make false claims about Jakes, citing a previous report by NBC News about AI-generated misinformation on YouTube, which said elements of the videos, including thumbnails and images used in audio recordings, were allegedly manipulated by artificial intelligence tools. said that it was created with YouTube videos using artificial intelligence have been popular for years, and YouTube recently introduced AI initiatives to dramatically increase the amount of AI-generated content and material on the platform.
But AI elements have also been used to spread misinformation, monetizing the videos with ads that have the potential to generate huge revenue for both YouTube and their creators. The motion, filed by Jakes’ attorney, is a significant development in the platform’s efforts to combat AI-generated viral misinformation, and is one of the first of its kind to try to unmask the creators behind it. In a previous report, the YouTube creator behind the similar content previously confirmed to NBC News that it uses AI tools, and AI detection experts found a high probability of similar content involving AI-generated images and audio.
YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the past year, Jakes has been the subject of hundreds of videos on YouTube, garnering millions of views. the past
Since Combs was first accused of abuse — in a lawsuit he settled with Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in November 2023 — multiple allegations have been made against the rapper and record executive, who was arrested and charged in September, including sex trafficking. trial while in custody. Combs’ attorney denied Ventura’s claims and said the settlement did not admit wrongdoing. Combs has denied other charges in subsequent civil lawsuits and has pleaded not guilty in the criminal case.
Along with real news coverage of the Combs case, an ecosystem of online misinformation targeting black celebrities has also flourished. In January, NBC News identified dozens of videos with hundreds of thousands of views containing AI-generated misinformation about Combs, Jakes and people like TV host Steve Harvey and actor Denzel Washington.
Some of the videos falsely reported that people had been arrested, while others showed humiliating fake photos of celebrities in bed together. NBC News found that some of the videos were created by artificial intelligence tools. YouTube has taken action against some of the videos and channels identified by NBC News. But Jakes’ attorney wrote in his motion that YouTube did not take action on many of the videos he recorded for the company.
Jakes is the senior pastor at The Potter’s House, a non-denominational Christian megachurch in Dallas.
Since 2021, he has hosted the sermon series Revolt, which Combs started in 2013; the rapper resigned from Revolt last year, selling his stake in March. In 2022, Jakes took a short break at Combs’ birthday party. In a 2024 lawsuit, music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones alleged that Combs planned to “use his relationship” with Jakes to “mitigate the impact” of Ventura’s lawsuit. Combs has not commented on the lawsuit.
Jakes did not defend Combs after Ventura’s lawsuit, but he did defend himself against the avalanche of “false and absurd videos” about Combs and other black celebrities.
“These YouTubers are alleged to have used the vile and sensational allegations surrounding Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to attack, humiliate, disparage and slander Bishop Jakes and many other prominent black celebrities with fabricated allegations that he is guilty of the same and other crimes. lewd and lascivious behavior like Mr. Combs,” the petition reads. “In other words, YouTubers are using Bishop Jakes’ reputation as clicks to attract unwitting users to watch their knowingly false videos for their own (and possibly other foreign companies’) financial gain.”
The fake images show Jakes in a prison jumpsuit, handcuffed and in sexual scenarios with other male celebrities, as depicted in the captions and thumbnails of the YouTube videos viewed by NBC News and in motion and screenshots. The video captions falsely claim that Jakes has been arrested, is gay, and has resigned from his position at the Potter’s House.
Jakes’ legal action follows a year of trying to contact YouTube’s legal counsel about the matter, as well as videos that violate YouTube’s community guidelines for deceptive thumbnails, spam, misinformation and lewd sexual imagery, the petition says. YouTube removed some of the videos but left most, the motion said.
An NBC News review of YouTube search results for “td jakes” and “td jakes diddy” on Wednesday turned up more than two dozen videos with false information in titles and thumbnails, verified photos and outrageous claims about Jakes, some with more than 1 million views. . Some of the videos linked Combs to Jakes’ recent on-stage health incident.
If the petition and subpoena are successful, after receiving information such as IP addresses and email addresses, Jakes can file a defamation lawsuit against the people behind the YouTube channels. In November, Jakes filed a defamation lawsuit against a man who claimed Jakes sexually assaulted him. The man made the claim on the podcast and no charges were filed.
