By Todd Russell
One of my favorite videogame documentaries of all time is the King of Kong (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752) starring 80s arcade gamer sensation Billy Mitchell and local teacher Steve Wiebe in an epic battle over Donkey Kong. If you haven’t seen this movie, go rent it, buy it, whatever (https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-king-of-kong-a-fistful-of-quarters-2007). If you like arcade gaming nerdom, this is for you. I’m not going to spoil the storyline here, suffice to say it’s about hardcore score chasing Donkey Kong.
Anyway, fast forward to a few years ago on the interwebs and a YouTuber named Karl Jobst drew the ire of Billy Mitchell by accusing Billy of involvement in something that had nothing do with his Donkey Kong scores.
There is more to the story and defamation lawsuit, and you if want to go down the rabbit hole you can follow the linked article below and Google it, but the reason for this article is that Billy prevailed in court and now Jobst has been ordered by the Australian courts to pay Mitchell a six figure sum in damages.
“But Mitchell’s defamation lawsuit against Jobst was unrelated to the legitimacy of his Donkey Kong scores. Rather, Mitchell sued because, as he alleged, Jobst’s 2021 video implied that Mitchell’s prior lawsuit against another YouTuber, Benjamin “Apollo Legend” Smith, resulted in the latter having to pay out $1m in damages and contributed to Smith taking his own life in 2020. It also reportedly suggested Mitchell had “expressed joy at the thought” of Smith’s suicide.” – Billy ‘The King of Kong’ Mitchell Wins $237,000 in Defamation Lawsuit Victory Over YouTuber Karl Jobst – IGN
I don’t know anything about the legal system in Australia, but the article says it’s easier to get a defamation judgment there than it is here in America. Jobst lives in Australia, so that’s where Mitchell sued.
We keep hearing about social media folks being held accountable for their words. Whether or not you agree with the courts, what’s done is done. I’m not sure about appeals, but based on the article it doesn’t sound like Jobst is taking this any further, he’s accepting the judgment and going to pay Mitchell.
This has almost nothing to do with the game Donkey Kong and more about not defaming another person online when you have a large social media audience. Jobst has over a million subscribers on his YouTube.