A YouTuber is being forced to upload apology videos on his channel every week for a month after insulting his ex-girlfriend's father. Spanish video creator Dalas Review is being made to read out his defamation sentence following a judge’s decision after allegedly calling the dad an "abuser" who hits “defenceless women”.
The social media star, who has 10.9 million subscribers on YouTube, is also having to pay the dad around €12,000 (£10,400). The 29-year-old, whose real name is Daniel Santomé, was taken to court after uploading footage to his channel after his breakup with his ex, Maria Rubio, to talk about her dad.
According to Gizmodo, Santomé made at least nine videos speaking about his ex's father, hurling an array of insults against him. In the videos, it is reported that Santomé alleged that his ex's father was someone who "likes to hit defenceless women on the street” and is "messed up in the head."
While in court, Santomé argued his remarks were protected by freedom of speech, according to the court report. He also reportedly accused his ex and her father of 'milking' the case - but the judge disagreed.
However, as reported by El Confidencial, the judge wrote in the sentence: “[It’s] hard to believe that anyone with an average level of intelligence could think that by using freedom of speech as an excuse they could say all of these insults, which are recognised as insults by the RAE (Royal Spanish Academy, the Spanish language governing body), freely on social media and believe that the target won’t feel attacked and that the system won’t respond.”
Santomé was ordered by the judge to delete the videos of himself talking about the father from his YouTube channel. And for throughout June, he has to on a weekly basis read out his defamation sentence - including that he was wrong about what he had said before.
Following the trial, Santomé took to his Twitter account to share some words about the case. When translated, he roughly said the following: "Imagine that your girlfriend is beaten in front of you, your dog is stolen, you are harassed for years and when you respond with BAD WORDS to that guy, you are sentenced to pay $ 'because you are a public figure'."
Santomé is known for his controversies and debates on the video-sharing platform. He created his main channel, DalasReview, back in June 2012.
