ReesaTeesa is A Master Class In Storytelling to Avoid Defamation

I’m a big proponent of victims telling their stories. If they don’t talk about their stories, then no one ever addresses the parts of the world that led to their trauma. However, sharing a story carries with it the risk that a victim opens themselves up to a defamation claim and is forced to interact with the person or people who victimized them all over again. Here is how to tell your story and give yourself the most protection against a defamation claim.

Recently, ReesaTeesa a woman on TikTok went viral for telling a 51-part sordid tale about dating, marrying, and eventually divorcing a man she claims was a pathological liar. There are many obvious things people could learn from ReesaTeesa’s story (hello, red flags). But, it is a great example of how to tell a story, and how not to tell a story, in light of defamation laws. It is being reported that ReesaTeesa’s ex-husband has been consulting with attorneys and plans to bring a defamation claim.   

Under California law, ReesaTeesa’s story may be considered slander because it is a spoken story recorded and distributed by TikTok. However, to be slanderous, the statements have to be demonstrably false; opinions are not defamation, and the person listening to the slander needs to be able to identify the person the statements are about. 

Truth is always going to be a defense to defamation, but you have to be able to prove the statements are true. In other words, stick to facts that can be proven true, and when you are repeating facts, be sure to make it clear you are stating an opinion or repeating what someone else said. ReesaTeesa routinely repeats what other people say in her videos, but importantly she doesn’t adopt what she repeats as truth. For instance, in Part 40, ReesaTeesa recounts a conversation with her ex-husband’s brother, “Chris” (it is a made-up name, according to ReesaTeesa). She repeats what “Chris” said and attributes it to him rather than simply stating Chris’s statements as facts. This is important because to show her video is true, she just needs to prove that Chris said those things to her, not that the subject of his statements is true. ReesaTeesa uses this effective technique throughout and relies on it again when she reiterates a conversation with police officers at the end of her marriage.

ReesaTeesa also does an excellent job of sticking to provable points. For instance, in Part 39, she discusses what she found in her ex-husband’s backpack. In the bag was a termination notice from an employer, but instead of simply saying he was terminated, ReesaTeesa clearly says the papers say he was terminated. She also refers to paperwork reflecting a weekend jail stay. Instead of simply saying he had gone to jail, she walks through finding the receipts and why people generally go to weekend jail in Georgia.

ReesaTeesa also made it hard for listeners to identify her husband, but apparently not enough. Spoiler alert: TikTokers eventually identify him. While ReesaTeesa uses fake names for characters in her story, she gives enough information that he could be identified by people who know or knew him. For instance, she identifies her ex-husband’s employer as “a condiment company” in Duluth, Georgia. I’m not sure how many condiment companies are in Duluth, but I cannot imagine there are many. She also gives a detailed background of his family history, the cities he has lived in, his childhood, and where he went to school (and where he claims he went). ReesaTeesa could have done a better job of hiding her ex-husband’s identity by either withholding some of the details of his past that did not relate to her story or simply changing up some of the locations she referred to in her videos.

The other potentially problematic thing ReesaTeesa did in her video was post photos of locations in her videos. I am assuming she did not secure the copyrights to those photographs. Copyrights to photographs on the internet belong to whoever took the photos and anyone who was assigned or licensed the copyrights in the photos. Photos are not free to use just because they are on the internet.

All in, I thought ReesaTeesa did a good job of telling an engaging story without running right into a defamation claim. It would not surprise me if she had some legal advice before she decided to tell this story and maybe even some along the way. In fact, throughout her videos, she refers to her friend “Tracy '' as a continuously solid friend and lifesaver. In an update, listeners learn that Tracy is an attorney. I bet that “Tracy” gave her some solid advice on telling her story, and once again will be the story's hero.