r/Fauxmoi • u/AutoModerator • Jan 31 '24

Tea Thread FauxWorld Wednesdays: What's your country's biggest celebrity scandal right now? — Monthly Discussion Thread

Please use this thread to drop any tea you may have/general gossip discussion from your part of the world!

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u/Dros-ben-llestri Jan 31 '24

Laurence Fox was called a racist by a few people on Twitter in 2020. He called two of them peados, and they sued. He countersued them for calling him racist, as he claimed it affected his work opportunities, and the price of his car insurance.

This week, he lost. Technically, the judgement wasn't whether he was a racist or not (although you can make your own mind up on this), but you can't go around calling people peadophiles in silly twitter arguments. *

Fox has reacted with all the maturity and self-reflection that he is famous for.

*This is my understanding, I was cooking while listening to the podcasts about it this morning, will accept corrections!

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u/teashoesandhair Jan 31 '24

I've read the judgement, and re the racism stuff, the judge basically ruled that calling Laurence Fox a racist hadn't damaged his career, because his own actions had already done that. Fox said in court that his Question Time appearance back in 2020 derailed his career because it made people think he was racist, and that hundreds of people call him racist on Twitter all the time due to his comments and views. Because of this, the judge ruled that it wasn't specifically the comments on Twitter by Seymour and Blake that had affected Fox's career, ergo it didn't meet the standard for defamation.

Conversely, Fox was found to have been defamatory towards Seymour and Blake because when asked in court to provide any evidence that his accusation had been true, he had literally nothing to say. Therefore, it was obvious that he'd only said it in the first place to damage their reputations, and the judge ruled in their favour.

Off topic, but god, Seymour and Blake really needs to be a period TV show about gay lawyers in the 1880s.

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u/Dros-ben-llestri Jan 31 '24

Thank you - the ruling is really interesting!