Valnet Threatens YouTubers With ‘Legal Consequences’ for Citing Wrap Investigation | Exclusive

Valnet, the digital media company behind Collider, Screen Rant and other entertainment sites whose labor practices were the subject of a Wrap investigation has threatened content creators with “legal consequences” if they discuss the article online.

Last week, three content creators and journalists received a “formal notice of defamation” from Valnet attorney Jonathan Auerbach accusing TheWrap of “false and defamatory” claims against Valnet CEO Hassan Youssef.

The letter warned that by referencing TheWrap’s reporting, the YouTubers were “exposing your company to various liabilities, including for defamation, intellectual property violations, and other legal consequences.”

One YouTube channel that received the letter, Clownfishtv, has not removed a video discussing the investigative article. The site’s owner did not respond to a request for comment. A second YouTuber did remove a video discussing TheWrap’s expose with another journalist. They declined to be identified.

TheWrap reached out to Valnet for comment but did not receive a response.

TheWrap also received a letter from Valnet’s attorney demanding that the article be retracted. TheWrap responded that it is standing by its reporting of oppressive labor practices based on interviews with 15 former contributors. Valnet has been sued by former contributor Daniel Quintiliano for failing to pay minimum wage, overtime, provide meal or rest breaks and reimburse business expenses.

Valnet claims that their sites offer “industry-standard compensation.” Former contributors said their pay fell to $40 per post or even $15 per post when the sites they wrote for were bought by the company

TheWrap’s article also disclosed a spreadsheet of more than 400 “2025 Blacklisted Freelancers,” blacklisting those perceived as difficult from working for the company. Valnet declined to comment but appeared to validate the document in an email accidentally forwarded to TheWrap in which a Valnet executive complained: “Our documents are being leaked.”

TheWrap’s attorney Robert Chapman noted in a response to Auerbach that “in California and the rest of the United States, a true statement cannot be defamatory.” The response pointed out that Valnet seemingly conceded the truth of the statements in their own letter and warned that California’s anti-SLAPP legislation protects First Amendment activities such as journalism.

Valnet, which is based in Canada, argued in its letter to TheWrap and the YouTubers that “in Quebec, damages sustained by a defamed party are recoverable monetarily whether or not the defamatory statements are true.”

Chapman noted that “a judgment in Canada based upon a supposedly ‘true’ defamatory statement, would not be, as a matter of law, enforceable in the United States” under the SPEECH Act (28 USC §4102).

Read the letter in full below:

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