Diplo Hit With 'Revenge Porn' Lawsuit Alleging He Shared Sex Videos Via Snapchat

Diplo is facing a civil lawsuit accusing him of violating “revenge porn” laws by sharing sexually explicit videos and images of a former romantic partner without her permission.

In a complaint filed Thursday in federal court in Los Angeles, an anonymous Jane Doe accuser alleged that DJ (real name Thomas Wesley Pence) recorded their sexual encounters and shared the footage with others on Snapchat “without the plaintiff's knowledge or consent.”

“Plaintiff is bringing this action to recover for the emotional and physical injuries she suffered as a result of Diplo's actions and to make sure no one else is forced to suffer the invasions of privacy and physical and mental trauma she felt and continues to suffer to feel to this day.” the woman's lawyers write.

In her complaint, the woman claims she had a consensual sexual relationship with the DJ from 2016 to 2023. During that time, she says she occasionally “gave defendant Diplo permission to record them having sex, but she never gave him permission to distribute those images and videos to third parties and reiterated that he was not going to record them without her express consent.”

“Plaintiff trusted defendant Diplo and believed she would respect her wishes to keep their sexual images and videos confidential and not record them having sex without her consent,” her lawyers wrote.

But last fall, the woman says she was contacted by someone who claimed to be in possession of images and videos of “plaintiff and defendant Diplo having sex.” It says the material, allegedly shared on Snapchat five years earlier, depicted her “genitalia, buttocks and face” as well as her voice.

After the incident, Jane Doe says she reported Diplo's actions to the New York Police Department, which later “issued a warrant for Defendant Diplo's arrest for distribution of personal images and/or videos depicting Plaintiff.”

In an email to Advertising signthe NYPD confirmed that a report had been filed and that there was an active investigation, but declined to comment on the allegations of an arrest warrant: “There is a criminal complaint of unlawful dissemination for a suspect named Thomas Pentz that is currently being investigated by NYPD detectives ».

In 2022, when Congress reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, lawmakers created for the first time a federal law prohibiting the release of “intimate” images without the consent of those depicted in them. The lawsuit accuses Diplo of violating that provision, as well as an earlier revenge porn law enacted by the state of California.

Both representatives and an attorney for Diplo did not respond to requests for comment.

Diplo has previously been accused of revenge porn by another woman. In 2020, she was sued by a woman named Shelly Auguste for allegedly distributing nude photos of her without permission. His lawyers called it a “smear campaign” and sued her for stalking, trespassing and distribution of private material. This trial is ongoing.