NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - Internet outrage has led to a defamation lawsuit by a New York City comedy club that is asking for millions of dollars and a judge to declare it is not antisemitic.
Comic Strip sued Envivo LLC over an article it published on Upper East Site that called one of its Instagram posts offensive to Jewish people. The case was filed Jan. 17 in New York County Supreme Court.
The Jan. 9 post started "GOD BLESS THE USA" and used hashtags like #freedomofchoice, #Fmandates and #nurenberg - a misspelled attempt at referencing Nuremberg and Nazi Germany. A lengthy private message chain ensued with Upper East Site's Instagram account that asked, among other things, whether Comic Strip should feel bad for comparing the Holocaust to COVID vaccine mandates.
Ultimately, the post was taken down after an hour, but Upper East Site published an article titled "Iconic Comic Strip Comedy Club Posts Anti-Semitic, Anti-Vax Message on Instagram. The site publicized the article on its social media platforms and City Councilwoman Julie Menin, "as a daughter of a Holocaust survivor," condemned the post.
Comic Strip says it suffered backlash from the community as a result of the article. A Patch.com article grouped the incident with a Nazi symbol being found at an Upper East Side bank the same week.
The articles and social media posts falsely accuse Comic Strip of being antisemitic and anti-vaccination, the suit says.
"Despite a private message conversation on Instagram in which the person who posted on Comic Strip Instagram stated they are not anti-vaccination and they abide by the rules of New York City, Uppereastsite.com still chose to publish this false information," the suit says.
"Despite the fact the person who posted the Instagram post for Comic Strip stated unequivocally they had no intent of offending anyone and took down the post just because UpperEastSiteNY stated a Jewish person was offended, they still continued to post a false assertion that the language was antisemitic and that the club engages in antisemitism. A false and abhorrent accusation."
Comic Strip is represented by Mark Yosef. It seeks not only millions of dollars, including punitive damages, but a declaration from the presiding judge that Comic Strip "is not antisemitic and its message was not antisemitic or antivaccination."