In a federal lawsuit filed in California by adult entertainers alleging corruption and misuse of internet databases intended to flag, among other things, content related to terrorism, three Meta executives have been named by name—apparently by mistake.
Nicola Mendelsohn, vice president of the global business team at Meta, and Nick Clegg, vice president of global policy, were named as the former “John Does” in a lawsuit accusing them of accepting bribes on behalf of OnlyFans as part of a scheme to help the adult platform outcompete its competitors on Tuesday.
This February, anonymous Meta workers were charged in a lawsuit that is still pending with conspiring behind the scenes to help OnlyFans by secretly “blacklisting” the competition online.
A group of online adult entertainers filed the lawsuit in San Francisco federal court, alleging that Meta employees used databases intended to alert businesses to safety and security threats to instead reduce the visibility and consequently the click rate of entertainers working almost exclusively for OnlyFans.
The artists’ lawyer presented what they said were copies of wire transfers last week, according to an anonymous source. The court used the purported transfers, which Gizmodo hasn’t seen and are still under seal, to back up earlier allegations that three Meta executives had accepted money from an OnlyFans middleman.
The petition on Tuesday also named Cristian Perrella as a third employee in addition to Clegg and Mendelsohn. According to a LinkedIn page, a Meta employee with the same name is currently employed as a Facebook trust and safety director.
In general, Meta refuted the allegations in response to a press query. However, in court, Meta’s attorneys are more concerned with claiming that even if the accusations were accurate, Meta would still be protected. While this is going on, OnlyFans has referred to the accusations as “meritless,” which is a legal term of art for charges that cannot be proven in court but aren’t false either.
