Netflix Sued For Defamation By ‘Afflicted’ Docuseries Subjects

Netflix has been sued by multiple individuals that were featured on the docuseries, Afflicted, due to the nature of the final product. 

According to legal documentation, seen by unCrazed, the lawsuit focuses on four subjects, Bekah Dinnerstein, Pilar Olave, Jamison Hill and Jill Edelstein. In the lawsuit, they are referred to as the Afflicted Four.

Their claim is that Netflix assured them it would be “a serious Netflix documentary, with science and interviews with experts in the field, and that Afflicted would show the Afflicted Four’s lives and struggles with their illnesses through a ‘compassionate lense’.”

The four of whom suffer from chronic illnesses are saying it was immediately clear after the show premiered on August 10, 2018, that they were “lied to” and claim “the series is not a documentary in any sense of the word, but a reality series that advanced a producer-driven narrative … suggesting that its subjects’ medically-documented physical illnesses are purely psychological and/or psychosomatic.”

In the first few minutes of the first episodes, they were labelled “as having controversial diagnoses (when in fact they do not) and undergoing fictitious or unrecognised treatments (also false).”

The Afflicted Four claim the first few minutes “implanted in the viewer the idea that the show concerns people that have mysterious, unknown, or fictitious diseases and conditions that have no medically recognised methods to diagnose and, as such are psychosomatic. The false and toxic thematic narrative is systematically woven into every single episode of the series.”

Additionally, their lawsuit claims the show presented factual errors, misquotes and manipulated timelines. They are suing Netflix, Doc Shop Productions and multiple other individual producers for defamation and fraud — amongst other claims — and are seeking over $1 million in damages.

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