Remote Tribe Sues NYT: We're Not Hooked on Porn

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 widely portrayed as technology-addled and addicted to pornography.

• The Marubo Tribe of the Javari Valley, a sovereign community of about 2,000 people in the rainforest, filed the defamation lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages this week in a court in Los Angeles, per the AP.
• The suit says the Times' June 2024 story by reporter Jack Nicas on how the group was handling the introduction of satellite service through Elon Musk's Starlink "portrayed the Marubo people as a community unable to handle basic exposure to the internet, highlighting allegations that their youth had become consumed by pornography."

• The theme of Nicas' story was that after less than a year of service, the community was now facing the same kinds of struggles with the internet that much of the world has dealt with for years. Nicas listed a broad range of those challenges: "teenagers glued to phones; group chats full of gossip; addictive social networks; online strangers; violent video games; scams; misinformation; and minors watching pornography." He wrote that a tribal leader "is most unsettled by the pornography. He said young men were sharing explicit videos in group chats, a stunning development for a culture that frowns on kissing in public."
• The suit also names TMZ and Yahoo as defendants, alleging that their stories amplified the Times' reporting—particularly the porn angle.
• A Times spokesperson says "any fair reading of this piece shows a sensitive and nuanced exploration of the benefits and complications of new technology in a remote Indigenous village with a proud history and preserved culture. We intend to vigorously defend against the lawsuit."

(More New York Times stories.)