A Columbia University student, Yusuf Hafez, filed a lawsuit on Monday against Accuracy in Media and its president Adam Guillette after Hafez’s name and face appeared under the banner “Columbia’s Leading Antisemites” on the so-called doxxing truck that circled the Morningside Heights campus.
The complaint, filed in New York Supreme Court, states that Accuracy in Media created a website domain under Hafez’s full name and falsely referred to him as “a leader of an organization that signed this hateful, antisemitic letter,” referencing an open letter that expressed “full solidarity with Palestinian resistance against over 75 years of Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid.” Nearly two dozen Columbia University student organizations signed the letter, although the groups’ names have since been removed.
Turath, a Columbia and Barnard student group that “promote[s] Arab culture at Columbia University,” endorsed the letter. According to the complaint, reviewed by the Columbia Spectator, Hafez has not been the president of the student organization Turath or a member of the organization since May, 2023.
The complaint argues that Turath’s student leadership was publicly available when the Accuracy in Media website published its “Columbia Hates Jews” list that included Hafez, and therefore Guillette “intentionally, knowingly, and deliberately modified” the website “to falsely identify [Hafez] as the current ‘President’ of Turath, a ‘leading antisemite’ and a ‘hateful’ and ‘despicable student’ despite knowing that his only leadership position” had ended.
The Accuracy in Media’s website page titled “Columbia Hates Jews” does not currently list Hafez as a student leader of Turath. When sharing the website on social media, Accuracy in Media wrote, “We will not stop exposing antisemitism on campus” and “here’s the list of names of Columbia students that signed the despicable victim-blaming letter.”
The lawsuit further alleges that Accuracy in Media and Guillette “unlawfully used [Hafez’s] name and likeness for commercial purposes without his consent, defamed [Hafez], and intentionally caused him severe emotional distress,” thereby violating New York State Civil Rights Law.
The lawsuit claims that Accuracy in Media gained “a massive amount of publicity” by using Hafez’s name and likeness, which the organization and Guillette “have used to promote and advertise AIM and solicit funds to support AIM and its president.”
Guillette solicited donations on social media on November 7, writing, “Want to enable @AccuracyInMedia to continue exposing antisemites? Any donations to this link will go directly towards our mobile billboards, research, domain names, and geotargeted ads. Your gift will enable us to put frowns on the faces of antisemites.”
The lawsuit states that Hafez “has been forced to attend classes remotely, and is unable to engage in his community groups, or social interactions” due to “fears and emotional and physical distress.”
Hafez is suing for violation of civil rights, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to the Spectator. He is demanding demanding compensation “for damage to name, career and reputation, pain and suffering, emotional distress and mental anguish, embarrassment, and indignity.”
Guillette has suggested that Accuracy in Media does not engage in “doxxing,” writing that “Doxxing involves the sharing of private information. We’d never post someone’s address, phone number, etc. These are the names of public student leaders who publicly signed a proclamation. The information came from Facebook pages, LinkedIn, etc. Is LinkedIn a doxxing site?”
Guillette considered sending the truck to the homes of students after it was spray-painted at Columbia. Guillette wrote on social media, “It seems the peaceful antisemites of @Columbia have spray painted @AccuracyInMedia’s mobile billboard. Perhaps it’d be safer to send the billboards directly to their parents homes from now on. And perhaps I should visit their campus to see exactly what’s going on… Thoughts?”
Guillette claimed the organization sent trucks to the homes of Harvard students’ families, saying “Starting today @AccuracyInMedia will visit them w/billboards at their homes” and “then they can explain to their neighbors why they don’t like the Jews.”