Music executive Larry Jackson is suing to identify the anonymous person or people behind what he describes as a “coordinated, malicious, and ongoing campaign” targeting him, his independent label Gamma, and the label’s artists. He says the “reputational warfare” started after an article cast him as one of the masterminds of Kanye West’s “risky comeback.”
In the 12-page complaint, filed in New York and obtained by Rolling Stone, Jackson says that shortly after Bloomberg published its story on April 23, an unidentified figure launched the websites “larryjacksonexposed.com” and “gammaexposed.com.” The sites published “false, misleading, and defamatory statements” about Jackson and his business, the complaint says, including an allegation that he used “bot-generated purchases” to artificially inflate sales figures for Bully, the latest album by West, now known as Ye.
The websites also “falsely state that Mr. Jackson ‘lied’ to Gamma’s staff about a contractual provision with Kanye West” that said the artist “would be dropped if he had any racist or antisemitic outburst,” the lawsuit says. According to the complaint, the sites claimed employees “found out [Jackson] lied to them” when the contract “got uploaded to company files.” Jackson says the allegation is not true and “falsely imputes dishonesty and deception in Mr. Jackson’s management of Gamma.”
Jackson, an industry veteran who produced music for Whitney Houston and Jennifer Hudson before he joined Interscope and later served as global creative director at Apple Music, says whoever was behind the alleged attack also used a coordinated network of bot accounts on X and Reddit to amplify the defamatory content. The effort made “the campaign appear organic when in fact it was orchestrated by a single actor or group of actors working in concert,” the lawsuit alleges.
Jackson, who declined to comment for this story, says the alleged smear campaign has caused him substantial harm. He says his company tried to investigate the websites but found they were part of a network that masks “the true hosting origin server IP address.” Jackson says he needs the court system to help identify the alleged perpetrators, likely through subpoenas.
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The new lawsuit is similar to one filed in 2022 by the band All Time Low to unmask three anonymous individuals who claimed in social media posts that group members sexually harassed or assaulted teen fans. The band eventually dropped the complaint saying their investigation proved the claims were “false and damaging online rumors.”
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Jackson’s claims also echo allegations in the ongoing legal battle between Australian actress Rebel Wilson and producer Amanda Ghost. In that case, Ghost claimed that “smear” websites were launched against her by the same crisis management firm that became embroiled in Blake Lively’s legal war with Justin Baldoni.
“Gamma and its artists are being subjected to a new and insidious form of corporate interference and harassment, unique to the social media and artificial intelligence age, in which anonymous actors deploy bot networks to astroturf a false narrative into the public consciousness without even a semblance of truth or accountability,” Jackson’s lawsuit says. “Gamma has no choice but to fight back, not only for itself but also for its investors, business partners, employees, and artists, against those who would weaponize technology to destroy reputations and livelihoods behind a veil of anonymity.”
