The mother of a popular YouTube personality sued a woman for defamation Tuesday, alleging she defamed the plaintiff on Instagram and published private information, including her address.
Tiffany Smith's Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit identifies the alleged author of the damaging comments only as Jane Doe because she was unable to identify her. The mother of 12-year-old YouTube personality Piper Rockelle seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Piper has nearly 5 million YouTube subscribers and 3 million Instagram followers, the suit states. Doe is an Instagram subscriber who, along with others, created an account on Instagram dubbed ExposingRockelles, according to the suit, which describes the account as a "hate" page "dedicated to harassing and disseminating false and defamatory allegations" against Smith and her family.
Smith learned in March that Doe published assertions that she is involved in child pornography in order to subject her family to shame, embarrassment, humiliation and ridicule, the suit states.
Doe also published Smith's address and posted photographs of her home, where Piper also resides, "in order to intimidate and expose plaintiff and her family to harassment and harm...," the suit states.
In one posting Doe wrote, "Someone's address just got leaked. Credits: my team," the suit states.
Doe's actions resulted "in the intended outcome as strangers appeared at plaintiff's home and the police had to be called," the suit states.
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Smith believes that Doe and others are using ExposingRockelles "to orchestrate a malicious and vile campaign in which (Doe) and her co-conspirators are directing millions of Instagram subscribers, most of whom are minors, to commit perjury by filing false police reports against the plaintiff," the suit states.
Doe and others also published and circulated a false list of purported crimes by Smith to police and child protective services, prompting police officers to show up at her home to investigate, the suit states.
The officers determined there was no merit to the allegations against Smith, the suit states.
Smith further believes that Doe is allegedly engaging in such conduct out of malice and in an attempt to increase interest in the number of Instagram followers for Doe and her family members, according to the suit.
