CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) 鈥� A Tennessee judge on Thursday set a $1 million bond for a white livestreamer charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting and wounding a Black man in a case that has stoked debate over the extents of free speech and the rights of content creators who profit from hate-filled interactions.
Dalton Eatherly, who livestreams under the moniker 鈥淐hud the Builder,” of another man, Joshua Fox, outside of the Montgomery County Courthouse in Clarksville, a Tennessee city of about 165,000 people not far from Kentucky.
Judge H. Reid Poland III forbade attendees at Thursday’s hearing from using electronic devices and interfering in any way with the proceedings, and he ordered several people from the courtroom, including conservative activist Jake Lang, who was led out in handcuffs.
Eatherly’s attorney, Jacob Fendley, declined to comment on the charges when reached two days after .
The case has drawn interest, with Eatherly raising more than $100,000 for his legal defense in a single day on a fundraising site. It is reminiscent of an incident from a year ago in which a white Minnesota woman was captured on cellphone video . She amassed over $800,000 on the GiveSendGo crowdfunding site and also pointed to her First Amendment rights.
A blurring of the lines
As more social media livestreamers find that being performative with bigoted language can draw big audiences 鈥� and big bucks 鈥� the line is blurring between freedom of expression and people’s right to feel safe. Even within livestreaming communities, some assert they have a right to say whatever they want to and to make money, while others support having boundaries.
Racial justice advocates worry that allowing people to profit from such videos only encourages and normalizes racist antics. As for regulation, social media can sometimes feel lawless, as it’s generally left to platforms to self-regulate and hold users accountable for obscene and abusive words. But at some point, laws for offline behavior can trump online freedoms, experts say.
According to the criminal complaint, Eatherly, 28, and Fox initially were involved in a verbal altercation. Eatherly reached for a gun inside his right jacket pocket and the two men started to fight. Fox was shot multiple times and later underwent emergency surgery at a hospital.
A witness described the man who was shot as Black. Eatherly is white.
In an audio stream apparently recorded by Eatherly just after the shooting and later posted online, he said he fired in self-defense.
Freedom of speech or hate speech?
Eatherly has defended his videos on the crowdsourcing site as 鈥渕ild jokes, unfiltered thoughts.鈥� While he has sometimes defended using a racial slur as 鈥渆dgy, harmless humor,鈥� Eatherly wrote, 鈥淚 know it鈥檚 controversial, but it鈥檚 my right to speak freely.鈥�
But legal experts say not all speech is protected.
Speaking generally about Eatherly’s social media offerings, David Raybin, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, said although Eatherly repeatedly references free speech in the posts, his actions in them may actually be crimes under Tennessee law. Because Eatherly was known to openly carry a pistol while berating people, the combination could constitute assault, he said.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to touch someone,鈥� Raybin said. Assault can be charged if you 鈥渃reate fear of imminent harm.鈥�
Brandon Tucker, senior director of government affairs for civil rights organization Color of Change, said 鈥渞ace-baiting鈥� content creates immediate risk for Black bystanders. There鈥檚 a 鈥減ower imbalance鈥� with a livestreamer who is attracting an audience.
鈥淭he same free speech that this individual wants to advocate for doesn鈥檛 recognize the chilling of my response to know that I cannot react in any reasonable way because my face, my safety, my family鈥檚 safety is in jeopardy and being broadcast to an audience that most likely aligns with this person鈥檚 views,鈥� Tucker said.
These streaming platforms cannot claim neutrality if they鈥檙e essentially financially rewarding users for using racist language to agitate, he said.
Even some other livestreamers say Eatherly crosses the line.
鈥淲hen you get to terrorizing and doing all this hate speech, that鈥檚 when the line gets drawn, especially when nobody is bothering you,鈥� said James Champion, a 41-year-old Los Angeles-based livestreamer and content creator who goes by the preferred online moniker SendaRoni Sloscru. 鈥淲hatever platform is allowing him to get away with that is basically race-baiting, and I just think in this day and time you got people who are going to laugh at it or people who will beat you to death about it.鈥�
Platform regulation can feel like the ‘Wild West’
Eatherly was streaming on Pump.fun, a platform where users create and trade cryptocurrency tokens. Token creators have used the livestream feature to gain notice in some outrageous ways, such as by performing dangerous stunts and threatening violence. In November 2024, Pump.fun paused the feature because people were violating its terms of service by uploading abusive, obscene or dishonest messages.
鈥淚t’s not clear what was done to improve that situation before it was reinstated,鈥� said Kate Ruane, director of the free expression program at the Center for Democracy and Technology. 鈥淚f you’re relying on users to report and none of the users that are viewing these livestreams disagree or have a problem with what they’re seeing, you might not be getting the user reports that you should.”
Representatives for the platform Pump.fun didn’t respond to a Wednesday email seeking comment.
Brandon Golob, a criminology, law and society professor at University of California, Irvine, said the number of livestreaming platforms has grown, but self-regulation can still feel like 鈥榯he Wild West.鈥�
The First Amendment, however, is not a blanket shield from real-world laws against harassment, hate crimes and provocation.
鈥淭he reality is that when it involves two private individuals, state law is going to govern,鈥� Golob said. 鈥淲e just want to make sure that we鈥檙e not conflating government responsibility or government censorship with private accountability.鈥�
SendaRoni said he鈥檚 been livestreaming for a few years and has 鈥渢ens of thousands鈥� of followers across a number of social media platforms.
鈥淚 usually talk about social issues. I speak on trending events, news,鈥� he said, adding that a number of livestreamers addressed Eatherly鈥檚 antics following the shooting in Clarksville.
鈥淚 think he tried to find people he鈥檇 get a reaction out of,鈥� SendaRoni said. 鈥淲hen you do things such as that the end results are not going to be exciting. You鈥檙e acting like no one has a reason not to be disgusted and you made a mockery of yourself.鈥�
Leading livestream platforms such as YouTube and Twitch do have an infrastructure for content moderation 鈥� and community guidelines barring hate speech and slurs. They utilize automated detection and user reports.
Both Golob and Ruane advise people to know their rights on how to handle livestreamers who are making them uncomfortable. Ruane says it’s OK 鈥渢o film them right back.鈥�
鈥淢ake sure that you’re sharing a different version of the story because whatever First Amendment rights they might be exercising, you have them too,鈥� Ruane said. 鈥淢ake sure that is being published at the same time and that can serve as a form of pushback in and of itself.鈥�
___
Tang reported from Phoenix and Williams from Detroit. Associated Press reporter Travis Loller in Nashville contributed to this story.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
