Originally published in The Epoch Times (Chinese edition) | Aug. 8, 2025 (updated Sept. 10, 2025) |
A lawsuit that began as a commercial dispute is turning into a major controversy involving foreign influence and religious discrimination, drawing attention from the U.S. legal community.
On Dec. 18, 2024, YouTube, represented by the prominent Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, sued the emerging video platform Gan Jing World in Santa Clara County Superior Court in California, alleging that its "sync" feature breached a contract.
In its complaint, YouTube argued that Gan Jing World breached its business agreement with YouTube: because Gan Jing World ran a promotional channel on YouTube, it was bound by YouTube's terms of service. YouTube claimed that Gan Jing World offered a "content sync" feature that let users automatically copy their own YouTube content to Gan Jing World.
Gan Jing World says the copyright in content users upload to YouTube belongs to the users, not to YouTube. YouTube does not own the copyright in user content. In addition, the uploaders—not YouTube—are responsible for third-party user content on YouTube, including its legality and any related liability.
Gan Jing World further noted that the "content sync" feature was built on Google's officially authorized API and was approved for use. YouTube users decided for themselves to publish videos from their own YouTube channels to Gan Jing World through the feature. Therefore, "YouTube's lawsuit is baseless."
YouTube is a video platform owned by Google LLC. Google acquired YouTube in 2006 for about $1.65 billion.
Gan Jing World: Complex Motives Behind the Lawsuit
Gan Jing World stressed that it has well-established Copyright Protection and Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) policies, published on its website, and commits to processing infringement notices within 48 hours, so that copyright complaints and takedown requests are handled effectively.
Gan Jing World also said that while the case appears to be a contract dispute, the motives behind it are complex. It believes the lawsuit aims to suppress Gan Jing World, damage its reputation and business partnerships, and ultimately eliminate the young platform.
Gan Jing World was founded on July 4, 2022, and is headquartered in Middletown, New York. It is dedicated to building a safe and healthy online environment. Many of the platform's employees practice Falun Gong.
Falun Gong is a peaceful meditation practice introduced to the public by Mr. Li Hongzhi in Changchun, China, in 1992. It has since spread to more than 110 countries and regions. On July 20, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a brutal persecution of the practice that has now lasted 26 years.
Gan Jing World's Attorney Questions Whether a Foreign Power Is Behind the Case
According to the prominent legal publication Daily Journal, Christopher J. Bakes, counsel for Gan Jing World and a partner at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, wrote in a joint case statement that YouTube's lawsuit is driven by "inflammatory" religious bias, or the policy aims of an "authoritarian foreign power hostile to the United States."
Bakes said the defendants had asked YouTube to preserve evidence of any ties to the CCP, including through its counsel, but the request was denied, citing the closure of Wilson Sonsini's Beijing office. In March 2025, the firm announced it would not renew the lease on its Beijing office, while keeping its Shanghai and Hong Kong offices.
"YouTube's withholding is concerning given evidence that elements of 'Big Tech' have been working 'hand in glove' with the CCP to undermine those the CCP deems foes," Bakes wrote. "Gan Jing World believes this case is not about the merits but to eliminate Gan Jing World and severely damage Gan Jing World's associations and associates in the process, and doing so in deference to the CCP, quoted in the lawsuit."
He added: "Explicitly using the complaint to channel the CCP's regulatory goals (to quash a faith movement) demonstrates a certain sure-footedness in misusing the American judicial process."
Plaintiff's Counsel Denies Ties to the CCP
YouTube's legal team denies any ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
According to the Daily Journal, Wilson Sonsini wrote in a court filing that Gan Jing World's claims "are beneath the dignity of the bar."
However, public commentators and some legal observers say the background Gan Jing World has raised should not be ignored. As the CCP steps up "transnational repression" against dissidents and religious groups overseas, whether the case has been subject to outside political interference deserves further attention and investigation.
In recent years, the U.S. Congress, think tanks, and law enforcement agencies have repeatedly disclosed that the CCP is carrying out coordinated "transnational repression" against dissident groups abroad through diplomatic, technological, infiltration, and legal means. Falun Gong practitioners are among its foremost targets.
Attorney: Calling a Faith Group a "Cult" Crosses the Line
John W. Moran, an attorney licensed in Massachusetts, wrote in the Daily Journal on May 27, 2025, in a piece titled "Law firm's 'cult' claim crosses the line," that language in Wilson Sonsini's complaint went too far.
"In its complaint, Wilson Sonsini gratuitously referred to the religious beliefs of Gan Jing World's owners, describing the company as affiliated with 'the Falun Gong "cult,"'" Moran wrote. "The complaint did not cite any factual basis to smear Falun Gong as a 'cult.'"
The only source the complaint cited was an article in the Columbia Journalism Review. But that article, Moran wrote, "did not claim that Falun Gong is a cult. It merely recounted (accurately) that the Chinese government had 'declared it an "evil cult."'"
Moran said the "cult" smear bolsters a long-standing Chinese government propaganda campaign to vilify Falun Gong, "to incite hatred and justify ongoing persecution of the millions of Falun Gong members in China."
He cited the book "Bloody Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs," by David Matas and David Kilgour: "the Chinese government labeling of the Falun Gong as an evil cult is a component of the repression of the Falun Gong, a pretext for that repression as well as a defamation, incitement to hatred, depersonalization, marginalization and dehumanization."
Moran also quoted Professor David Ownby's preface to "Falun Gong and the Future of China": "the entire issue of the supposed cultic nature of Falun Gong was a red herring from the beginning, cleverly exploited by the Chinese state to blunt the appeal of Falun Gong and the effectiveness of the group's activities outside of China."
Moran further argued that Wilson Sonsini, as a prominent law firm, should know such language is a tool a totalitarian regime uses to strip away religious freedom, yet chose to carry it into the American justice system. "For a prominent law firm to promote the Chinese government's propaganda is unconscionable," he wrote.
He said the label may violate California Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4.1(a) and the American Bar Association's Model Rules on religious discrimination and unlawful harassment. "It opted instead for religious bigotry," Moran wrote, "to the great shame of that law firm."
This article was originally published in Chinese in The Epoch Times on Aug. 8, 2025, by Epoch Times reporter Lin Nan. Translated into English and republished in full with the authorization of The Epoch Times. Quotations from the Daily Journal and John W. Moran appear in their original English.
Original article: https://www.epochtimes.com/b5/25/8/7/n14569469.htm
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