CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A judge on Thursday set a $1 million bond for a white livestreamer charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting and wounding a Black man, in a case that has stoked debate over the extents of free speech and the rights of content creators who profit from hate-filled interactions.
Dalton Eatherly, who livestreams as “Chud the Builder," is charged in the May 14 shooting of Joshua Fox outside of the Montgomery County Courthouse in Clarksville, a Tennessee city of about 165,000 people not far from Kentucky.
Judge H. Reid Poland III forbade attendees at the hearing from using electronic devices and interfering in any way with the proceedings, and he ordered several people from the courtroom, including conservative activist Jake Lang, who was led out in handcuffs.
Eatherly's attorney, Jacob Fendley, declined to comment on the charges when reached two days after the livestreamer's arrest.
The case has drawn interest, with Eatherly raising more than $100,000 for his legal defense in a single day on a fundraising site. It is reminiscent of an incident from a year ago in which a white Minnesota woman was captured on cellphone video admitting to calling a child a racist slur. She amassed over $800,000 on a crowdfunding site and also pointed to her First Amendment rights.
As more livestreamers find that being performative with bigoted language can draw big audiences — and big bucks — the line is blurring between freedom of expression and people's right to feel safe. Even within livestreaming communities, some assert they have a right to say whatever they want to and to make money, while others support having boundaries.
Racial justice advocates worry that allowing people to profit from such videos only encourages and normalizes racist and otherwise shocking antics. As for regulation, social media can sometimes feel lawless, as it's generally left to platforms to self-regulate and hold users accountable for obscene and abusive words. But at some point, laws for offline behavior can trump online freedoms, experts say.
According to the criminal complaint, Eatherly, 28, and Fox initially were involved in a verbal altercation. Eatherly reached for a gun inside his right jacket pocket and the two men started to fight. Fox was shot multiple times and later underwent emergency surgery at a hospital.
In an audio stream apparently Eatherly recorded just after the shooting and later posted online, he said he fired in self-defense.
Freedom of speech or hate speech?
Source: WPLG
