Is Yuga Labs silencing Ryder Ripps with a SLAPP lawsuit?

Yuga Labs team seems to be taking the legal stance seriously as the ropes of the lawsuit tighten around Ryder Ripps' neck.

The artist had previously released a mocking version of BAYC, a  “satire, and appropriation to protest and educate people regarding The Bored Ape Yacht Club and the framework of NFTs.”  He claimed that the Yuga Labs was pro-Nazi, to which the founders denied and sued him and his partner, Jeremy Cahen for the ‘false’ claims. Now Ripps seems to be cornered by Yuga Labs completely.

Ripps says the lawsuit is a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation), meaning it is a legal action to silence him. His lawyers claim that the RR/BAYC collection by Ripps was simply an appropriation to  “call out a multi-billion-dollar company built on racist and neo-Nazi dog whistles.”

In the official legal statement, Ripps’ legal team said,  “Yuga has been on a campaign aimed at silencing Mr. Ripps’s artistic expression and related criticism of Yuga’s connections to neo-Nazi and alt-right culture.”

They claimed that many artists and creators have created knock-off versions of BAYC and none of them were sued by Yuga, except Ripps, which means they are trying to threaten him for speaking up.

The legal team further explained that the public was already aware that Ripps RR/BAYC collection is a rip-off and understood the satirical message behind the NFTs, which is why this lawsuit should be treated under the anti-SLAPP statute.