Megan Thee Stallion (born Megan Pete) won her defamation lawsuit against vlogger Milagro “Gramz” Cooper in a landmark decision on Monday.
The Miami jury found Milagro liable for defaming Megan, intentionally inflicting emotional distress by coordinating with incarcerated rapper Tory Lanez and for promoting the deep fake video.
The jury awarded the Grammy-winning rapper $75,000 in punitive damages. Under Florida law, Milagro is also on the hook for Megan’s legal fees, which are expected to top $1 million.
The landmark verdict means people on social media who harass or stalk an individual can be sued for millions.
The jury decided that Milagro qualified as media, which protects her under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
But they also found Milagro was not neutral. The judge can still throw out the defamation verdict because Milagro is media.
However, she is not protected from behaviors that caused harm to Megan.
Megan filed a lawsuit against the popular vlogger in October 2024 accusing her of cyberstalking, defamation, and sharing AI-generated photos and a deepfake video of Megan on the Internet.
Megan accused Milagro of being a “paid surrogate” for rapper Tory Lanez, who is serving time in a California state prison for shooting Megan in 2020.
During testimony, Milagro admitted she didn’t believe Megan faked her injuries.
From Rolling Stone:
In her lawsuit and over several days on the witness stand in Miami, Megan claimed Cooper and Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, maliciously spread rumors about her as retribution for her testimony against Peterson. Megan said the online vitriol pushed her to the brink. She did not allege that Cooper created the deepfake video, but jurors saw evidence that Cooper “liked” the video on her @MobzWorld account on X, on June 8, 2024, and then urged her followers to “go to my likes,” where it was viewable.
