One of the beauty community’s most buzz-worthy lawsuits has come to a close.
Popular YouTube drama channel, Here for the Tea, confirmed via Twitter today that her legal battle with the Instagram beauty news page, Trendmood, has been dismissed.
“So, I have an update for you guys. As you may be aware, I was sued by Trendmood last year. About a month ago, I successfully got the lawsuit against me dismissed with prejudice for failure to state a claim,” she tweeted.
Here for the Tea— real name Samantha Rabinowitz—went on to call the dismissal a “win” for herself and the drama community as a whole, including bloggers and journalists that report on internet culture.
“So many creators attempt to silence critics with lawsuits and I absolutely was not going to let that precedent be set,” she wrote.
On November 30th, 2020, Sophie Shab of Trendmood filed a lawsuit against HFTT for defamation. The lawsuit was in response to claims by HFTT that Sophie had doxxed her and given the doxx to ring-wing extremist beauty YouTuber Amanda Ensing and her boyfriend after HFTT publicly condemned them for supporting former US President Donald Trump.
Filing a defamation lawsuit, Sophie claimed HFTT’s criticism of her business practices over the years had “devolved from [HFTT’s] alleged free speech, to statements likely constituting trade libel, to now full-blown libelous statements causing economic damage and reputational harm to Trendmood.”
Loss of Twitter and Instagram followers, stunted social media growth, and loss of revenue were amongst the damages Sophie cited as a result of HFTT’s doxxing allegations.
On August 31st, 2021, Judge Mark C. Scars dismissed Trendmood’s lawsuit against HFTT without leave to amend, bringing the case to a close.
While the creator has remained relatively quiet on social media this past year, HFTT has confirmed via Twitter that she plans to return to YouTube now that the lawsuit is behind her.
Sophie has not commented on the lawsuit or its result at the time of publication.