Last year, All Time Low guitarist Jack Barakat was anonymously accused of sexual abuse by multiple online accounts. At the time, the band issued a statement denying the allegations and called them "absolutely and unequivocally false."
Now, as Rolling Stone reports, the band has filed a libel lawsuit that aims to identify the accusers and, per the complaint, "establish the unambiguous truth and quash these malicious lies so that they won’t be repeated in the future." The suit, which was filed by all four members of the band (Jack Barakat, Alex Gaskarth, Zack Merrick, and Rian Dawson), says that they intend to "utilize discovery including subpoenas to uncover the identities of those that defamed them."
"Regrettably, this is the only course remaining to properly restore their reputations and repair the damage to their business," the suit reads. "[The band] will then donate any proceeds derived from this litigation to charities that support victims of sexual abuse." Soon after the allegations surfaced, multiple openers for All Time Low's fall 2021 tour dropped off the bill, though the band proceeded to play the shows as scheduled.
"[We have] no choice but to mobilize and utilize the civil court system to identify the culprits, prove that the defamatory statements are false, and seek justice," the complaint reads. The lawsuit targets three separate online accounts, on either TikTok or Twitter, that came forward with abuse allegations in the fall. Details on those allegations can be found here.
