LOS ANGELES: An Indigenous tribe from the Brazilian Amazon has sued The New York Times, saying the newspaper’s reporting on the tribe’s first exposure to the internet led to its members being broadly portrayed as technology-addled and hooked on pornography.
The Marubo Tribe of the Javari Valley, a sovereign group of about 2,000 folks within the rainforest, filed the defamation lawsuit searching for lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} in damages this week in a courtroom in Los Angeles.
It additionally names TMZ and Yahoo as defendants, alleging that their tales amplified and sensationalized the Instances’ reporting and smeared the tribe within the course of.
The go well with says the Instances’ June 2024 story by reporter Jack Nicas on how the group was dealing with the introduction of satellite tv for pc service by way of Elon Musk’s Starlink “portrayed the Marubo folks as a group unable to deal with fundamental publicity to the web, highlighting allegations that their youth had grow to be consumed by pornography.”
“These statements weren’t solely inflammatory however conveyed to the common reader that the Marubo folks had descended into ethical and social decline as a direct results of web entry,” an amended model of the lawsuit filed Thursday says.
“Such portrayals go far past cultural commentary; they immediately assault the character, morality, and social standing of a complete folks, suggesting they lack the self-discipline or values to perform within the fashionable world.”
