In late 2024, former Kotaku Senior Editor Alyssa Mercante filed a lawsuit against YouTube personality SmashJT in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Represented by attorney Ron Coleman of the Coleman Law Firm, SmashJT filed a motion to dismiss the original complaint, asserting that the statements at issue were either protected under the First Amendment as satire, hyperbole, opinion, or lacked the specificity required to qualify as actionable defamation under New York and California law.
