Columbia Business School grad wants a judge to unmask the cowardly creep who anonymously labled her a “whore” on YouTube.
In a Manhattan Supreme Court suit, Carla Franklin says she has “suffered damages in the form of disress and mental anguish” from a mean-spirited posting in a comment attached to a video posting of her — and she wants a judge to give her a court order to force Google and YouTube to turn over the poster’s identity.
Franklin became aware that some short video snippets she had done for Columbia — including one where she advises students, “Don’t take things so seriously” — had been uploaded to YouTube, with the single-word slur posted in the comments section under the video.
Someone also set up a YouTube channel featuring video from an independent movie Franklin had acted in several years ago.
The single-word slurs “were made with the intention to harm Ms. Franklin’s reputation and interfere with her relationships, employment and livelihood,” the court filing says, and she wants to make the anonymous poster pay for her “personal humiliation, mental anguish and damage to her reputation.”
“People feel bolder and bolder that they can say whatever they want when they post things with anonymity, but there can be consequences” if you say something defamatory, Franklin’s lawyer, David Fish, told The Post. “If you’re going to post something about somebody, you need to stand by it.”
The suit notes that Franklin, a business consultant, is a highly accomplished woman. She graduated from Duke University in 1999 with degrees in biology and psychology, and after five years of work as a part-time actor and model, she attended Columbia Business School, graduating last year.
Fish said his client has a “fairly good idea who was doing this,” but “we want to make 100 percent sure before we file suit.”
Google and YouTube — which was purchased by Google in 2006 — don’t comment on specific legal cases, but typically will turn over IP addresses and other identifying information if there’s a court order.
A similar case played out last year in Manhattan Supreme Court, where model Liskula Cohen fought to uncover the anonymous blogger who had featured her on a “Skanks in NYC” blog.
The site featured numerous unflattering pictures of Cohen, and labeled her a “psychotic, lying, whoring . . . skank.” A judge ordered Google to give up the blogger’s computer info, and she was revealed to be Rosemary Port, an acquaintance of Cohen’s.
Franklin’s suit says there were three user names involved in the posting — greyspector09, Jimmy Jean008 and JoeBloom08 — and Fish said he suspects they’re all the same person.