When All Time LOW filed a libel lawsuit last February denying anonymous claims of alleged sex abuse, the pop-punk band said it planned to use the court’s subpoena power in an aggressive bid to unmask its accusers.

This week, a Los Angeles judge sided with the band members and gave Twitter 10 days to hand over “identifying information” for Jane Doe 2, the person behind the account that posted the lengthy statement in October 2021 — the most detailed first-person account of alleged abuse referenced in the lawsuit.

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In the post, someone using the handle @ATLstatement claimed to be a woman who was sexually abused by the band’s lead guitarist, Jack Barakat, in 2011, when she was 15 years old and he was 22.

“Plaintiffs cannot proceed with litigation without identifying Doe 2,” Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Daniel S. Murphy wrote in his new ruling obtained by Rolling Stone.

Judge Murphy stated that while the right to publish anonymously is protected by the First Amendment, freedom of speech does not extend to defamation. That means plaintiffs who file “legally sufficient” lawsuits have a right to “discover” the identities of their alleged defamers.

“Here, the complaint states a valid claim because it sets forth the exact statements alleged to be defamatory, alleges that they are false, and alleges that defendants made the statements with actual malice,” Judge Murphy wrote.

“Plaintiffs deny under oath the accusations made in Doe 2’s Twitter post,”...

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