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Artist News Legal
All Time Low go legal over sexual abuse allegations on TikTok and Twitter
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 4 February 2022
All Time Low have sued three people who made allegations of sexual harassment and abuse against the band’s members on social media last year. The band don’t currently know the identities of their online accusers, but are seeking to identify them via the litigation.
The first set of allegations against the band went viral on TikTok last October. In that post and accompanying comments, a woman claimed that “a famous pop-punk band” had invited her onto their tour bus when she was just thirteen, offered her beer and asked for her bra “for their nasty collection”. She didn’t specifically name All Time Low but dropped enough hints that people linked the claims to the band.
A second accuser subsequently alleged that All Time Low guitarist Jack Barakat sexually abused her in 2011 when she was just fifteen, and that an inappropriate relationship then continued for years as she followed the band on subsequent tours. And a third person said on Twitter that she was aware of 97 allegations against the band, adding: “If 97 people aren’t enough then I don’t know what to tell you”.
The band’s members then responded to the allegations in late October, stating: “The allegations being brought against us are absolutely and unequivocally false. When a TikTok video gained traction a few weeks ago alluding to inappropriate behaviour within our camp, we chose not to respond because of the glaring inconsistencies in the story, and the apparent reluctance to mention us by name”.
“We felt that a response would have elevated and escalated an outright lie, and in doing so, robbed actual victims of abuse of the very real and very important collective voice”, they went on. “We believe victims. We stand with victims. We have only ever wanted to cultivate and nurture a culture around our shows and band that is welcoming, healthy and safe”.
According to Rolling Stone, the new lawsuit filed with the LA courts says that it aims to “establish the unambiguous truth and quash these malicious lies so that they won’t be repeated in the future”.
The hope is that, via the discovery process of the litigation, the band can identify the three people who made the allegations, who are currently referred to as Doe 1, Doe 2 and Doe 3 in the legal filing.
The lawsuit adds: “Regrettably, this is the only course remaining to properly restore the [band members’] reputations and repair the damage to their business. [The band] will then donate any proceeds derived from this litigation to charities that support victims of sexual abuse”.
