The Brazilian indigenous tribe of the Mabúro has filed a lawsuit against several American media outlets. According to the tribe, they are guilty of spreading the rumor that the people in the tribe became addicted to porn as soon as they got an internet connection.
Entertainment website writes that the tribe is suing , and . The tribe demands 180 million dollars (158 million euros) from these three platforms.
In June 2024, published an article about the tribe in the Amazon of about two thousand people, who gained access to the internet thanks to the company Starlink.
According to the lawsuit, the article suggests that the people in the tribe “could not cope with simple exposure to the internet, emphasizing claims that the youth became obsessed with pornography.” “Such descriptions directly attack the character, morality, and social status of an entire people,” the tribe states.
The American newspaper disagrees with the lawsuit. According to the newspaper, the article was “a nuanced exploration of the benefits and challenges of a new technology in a remote indigenous village.” According to the reporter, Jack Nicas, the article was a comparison with the rest of the world that also faces challenges from the internet.
‘Blame was shifted to thers’
and are said to have spread the story about the porn addiction, after which wrote a sequel with the title No, a remote tribe in the Amazon Did not Become Addicted to Porn. However, the tribe believes that the newspaper “does not recognize its own role in fueling the rumor.”
“Instead of publishing a correction or apology, the follow-up article marginalized the emphasis on pornography in the first article and shifted the blame to others,” the lawsuit reads.
and have not yet responded to the lawsuit.