Top Dawg wins appeal over doxxing claim, wider assault case continues

Top Dawg Entertainment cannot be sued for doxxing two women who accused the label of sexual assault, a California appeals court ruled on 8 October.

The decision throws out a side claim in a wider lawsuit against the Los Angeles hip-hop label. It reverses an earlier decision by a Los Angeles trial judge, who had allowed the doxxing claim to move forward.

The two accusers are Linda Luna and Ayah Altayri, according to Billboard. They filed a sexual harassment and assault lawsuit against Top Dawg in December 2024 under the pseudonyms Jane Doe and Jane Roe, placeholder names used in court filings to shield a person's identity.

After that lawsuit was filed, Top Dawg responded with a press release that named both women. Luna and Altayri then argued that the disclosure broke California law. They pointed to the state's Doxxing Victims Recourse Act, which allows people to seek damages when identifying information is published with intent to harm them.

The trial court let that argument proceed. The appeals court disagreed.

In its ruling, the court said Luna and Altayri had never filed a formal request for permission to proceed anonymously. Because no judge had granted anonymity and no court rule required it, the label had violated no order by publishing their names.

That reasoning had been signalled weeks earlier. A three-judge state appellate panel issued a tentative ruling to reverse the trial court's decision, according to Bloomberg Law. Tentative rulings set out a court's likely thinking before a final order is made.

The ruling is narrow. It does not end the broader case.

That case accuses Top Dawg executives Brandon Tiffith and Anthony Tiffith Jr. of sexual impropriety. Those allegations remain before the court and have not been decided.