Black Girl Gamers Founder Jay-Ann Lopez via BBC London YouTube
Black Girl Gamers, the video game consultancy outfit run by Jay-Ann Lopez, issued a copyright strike against YouTuber and critic Smash JT.
In a post to his website, Smash JT shared, “Black Girl Gamers (BGG) has decided to abuse YouTube’s flawed copyright system to silence dissenting voices, specifically in this case – my own.”
He then shared a screenshot of the copyright strike against his channel. The strike was issued on Smash JT’s video titled “Sweet Baby Inc CEO Kim Belair Declares WAR on Gamers…” and covers a video featuring commentary from Jay-Ann Lopez, Kim Belair, and The Verge staff writer Ash Parrish.
Smash JT later added, “BGG’s actions are not just inappropriate; they’re a calculated effort to control the narrative by attacking content creators and scaring them from talking about them and those who challenge their perspectives.”
“Striking down a very popular viral video (nearly 200,000 views already in a couple days) that offered a critical viewpoint is a BEYOND desperate move, one that shows they’re more interested in silencing opposition than engaging in any meaningful discussion,” he added.
He has since published the video on Rumble and shared that he will potentially be pursuing legal action against Black Girl Gamers for the copyright strike.
He informed Black Girl Gamers, “Retract the strike claim immediately on the following SmashJT video, or I will be contacting my lawyer and pursuing legal action against your false copyright claim on my channel.”
“Your abuse of the YouTube Copyright system here attempting to create a narrative and hide valid criticism and opinions of others is a direct shot at the freedom of speech. This is not what the copyright system is intended for use, and you KNOW that,” he added.
He concluded, ‘This will be my only communication about this matter.”
Lopez and Black Girl Gamers are no strangers to attempting to silence her critics. She and her company attempted to do so to That Park Place at the end of March. That Park Place published an article titled “Forspoken Consultant Black Girl Gamers Appears To Discriminate In Their Hiring Practices While Claiming They Are Being Harassed,” where it was posited that it appeared that the organization was discriminating in their hiring practices based off a post the organization made on X that read, “Looking for Black Women Content Creators that make Dungeons & Dragons (DND) content for some potential brand work! Hit us up!”
Following this article’s publication Black Girl Gamers threatened legal action against That Park Place on X, “We’re addressing the recent allegations published on thatparkplace.com about discriminatory hiring practices within Black Girl Gamers. These claims are false and were made without prior fact-checking or verification from us or our representatives.”
“Black Girl Gamers operates as a contracting organization that collaborates with both freelancers and content creators from all backgrounds to work on various projects and initiatives to amplify underrepresented voices in gaming and make the community more inclusive,” the organization continued.
Next, they wrote, “Contrary to the allegations in the article, Black Girl Gamers has contracted freelancers of all races, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and ethnic backgrounds.”
“We have also included representation of all genders and backgrounds in our content, at our events, and in our marketing, consultation, and research projects, some of which are not publicly disclosed due to NDAs,” it posted.
The organization then claimed, “Evidence demonstrating our commitment to diversity and inclusion, including our non-discriminatory hiring practices, is readily available and easily searchable.”
“Upon discovering these false and defamatory allegations, we have taken steps to obtain legal counsel to take action against the publication and journalist, as well as subsequent content creators who have reshared the false allegations about our organization,” the company posted.
“We will continue to pursue further action against anyone who persists in spreading false and defamatory information about Black Girl Gamers, its founder, and its contractors and partners,” the organization stated.
“We value the talent and contributions of all our collaborators and we are committed to continuing to do so. Thank you to our community for the ongoing support,” the organization concluded.
Following this threat a Cease & Desist letter was sent to That Park Place, where That Park Place’s lawyer Ron Coleman discussed the letter sent by Diallo K. Morris of the MCO Law Team. A response was then sent to Morris and his team. After this response was sent, no communication has been received from Black Girl Gamers since.
This is not the first time that Smash JT has been targeted either. Second Wind co-founder and Editor-in-Chief Nick Calandra previously led a campaign against Smash JT and his website. The campaign was initially successful with Wix shutting down the website.
The company informed Smash JT in May, “Your site was disabled due to privacy violation. According to our Terms of Use you are not allowed to display information (names, family information, pictures) of any private individual without their prior consent. Wix is obligated to remove such infringing content immediately with or without a notice to the user. Please let us know if you have questions.”
However, after being contacted by Smash JT the website was restored with Smash JT declaring victory in a video, “The later correspondence I got with Wix, they said the information that I provided to them was investigated and that they cleared me of any wrongdoing and they have approved the website of going back up.”
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