{"id":25675,"date":"2025-04-09T17:03:58","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T17:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=25675"},"modified":"2025-04-09T17:24:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T17:24:05","slug":"pilot-files-defamation-lawsuit-against-matt-wallace-x-influencer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=25675","title":{"rendered":"Pilot Files Defamation Lawsuit Against Matt Wallace, X Influencer"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Two days after a helicopter collided with a passenger jet in Washington in January, killing 67 people<\/a>, Jo Ellis woke up to a flurry of text messages.<\/p>\n

Ms. Ellis, a 35-year-old helicopter pilot in the Virginia Army National Guard, learned from friends that her name and photos were all over social media. Users were falsely naming her as the pilot who had crashed into a passenger jet on Jan. 29 \u2014 a sign, in the eyes of the online mob, that diversity initiatives had played a role in the crash because Ms. Ellis is transgender.<\/p>\n

She posted a \u201cproof of life\u201d video<\/a> on Facebook \u2014 emphasizing that she was very much alive and well in an attempt to slow the spread, but claims seemed to multiply.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life was turned upside-down at that point,\u201d Ms. Ellis said in an interview, adding that her employer sent armed bodyguards to protect her family and she started carrying a loaded weapon as a precaution. \u201cForever on, I\u2019m known as \u2018that trans terrorist.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Ms. Ellis filed a defamation lawsuit on Wednesday against Matt Wallace, an influencer on X with more than two million followers. Mr. Wallace was one of the more prominent people to spread the falsehood in a series of posts that included photos of Ms. Ellis and details about her life.<\/p>\n

Mr. Wallace deleted his posts about Ms. Ellis after her Facebook video started spreading online. He posted an \u201cimportant update\u201d on the afternoon of Jan. 31, writing that Ms. Ellis \u201cwas not piloting the helicopter that crashed in to the plane and is still alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two days after a helicopter collided with a passenger jet in Washington in January, killing 67 people, Jo Ellis woke up to a flurry of text messages.Ms. Ellis, a 35-year-old helicopter pilot in the Virginia Army National Guard, learned from friends that her name and photos were all over social media. Users were falsely naming her as the pilot who had crashed into a passenger jet on Jan. 29 \u2014 a sign, in the eyes of the online mob, that diversity initiatives had played a role in the crash because Ms. Ellis is transgender.She posted a \u201cproof of life\u201d video on Facebook \u2014 emphasizing that she was very much alive and well in an attempt to slow the spread, but claims seemed to multiply.\u201cMy life was turned upside-down at that point,\u201d Ms. Ellis said in an interview, adding that her employer sent armed bodyguards to protect her family and she started carrying a loaded weapon as a precaution. \u201cForever on, I\u2019m known as \u2018that trans terrorist.\u2019\u201dMs. Ellis filed a defamation lawsuit on Wednesday against Matt Wallace, an influencer on X with more than two million followers. Mr. Wallace was one of the more prominent people to spread the falsehood in a series of posts that included photos of Ms. Ellis and details about her life.Mr. Wallace deleted his posts about Ms. Ellis after her Facebook video started spreading online. He posted an \u201cimportant update\u201d on the afternoon of Jan. 31, writing that Ms. Ellis \u201cwas not piloting the helicopter that crashed in to the plane and is still alive.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25677,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25675"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25678,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25675\/revisions\/25678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}