Spanish YouTuber Dalas Review, who has over 10 million followers on the platform, lost a defamation case brought against him this week. A judge found that Dalas Review had defamed his ex-girlfriend's father by claiming that he abused women, including his ex-girlfriend, according to Gizmodo. The news was first reported by Spanish outlet El Diario.
Dalas Review, whose legal name is Daniel Santom, owes his ex-partner Maria Rubio's father $13,000 and has to read his defamation sentence on his YouTube channel every week for a month as part of his punishment, per the report.
Leading up to the lawsuit and after he and Rubio split up, Santom made at least nine videos addressing her father, hurling a variety of insults against him, accusing him of hitting Rubio. In his videos, Santom alleged that Rubio's father was an "abuser," as well as calling him a "sick coward who's messed up in the head," and someone who, "likes to hit defenseless women on the street," according to Gizmodo.
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According to El Diario, the judge pointed to the number of young people that follow Dalas Review in sentencing the YouTuber, and said that making unfounded claims about violence against women downplays real efforts in Spain to tackle those problems.
During the case, the judge rejected Santom's argument that his comments were protected by freedom of speech, per the report. After he was sentenced, the YouTuber accused Rubio, also a YouTuber, and her father, of milking the situation for publicity, according to Gizmodo.
Through June, Santom's channel will now feature videos reading the judge's sentence against him.
"[It's] hard to believe that anyone with an average level of intelligence could think that by using freedom of speech as an excuse they could say all of these insults, which are recognized as insults by the RAE (Royal Spanish Academy, the Spanish language governing body), freely on social media and believe that the target won't feel attacked and that the system won't respond," the judge wrote in his sentence.
The videos featuring the allegations against Rubio's father were also ordered to be taken down.
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"Imagine that they hit your girlfriend in front of you, that they steal your dog, that they harass you for years, and then respond with BAD WORDS to this guy, they sentence you to pay $ 'because you're a public figure,'" the YouTuber tweeted, according to Gizmodo. "This is the injustice that I have to put up with."
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