Viacom International Services Inc. and Paramount Global are seeking $2,000 in sanctions against a former content development manager who alleges he was terminated in 2024 in a backlash for complaining about a lack of diversity as well as the legality of the defendants’ use of artificial intelligence.
Shawn David Wu’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges whistleblower retaliation, discrimination and failure to prevent retaliation and harassment.
On May 18, defense attorneys filed court papers with Judge Peter A. Hernandez in advance of a June 25 hearing asking that the companies be told they need not respond to 31 written questions posed by the plaintiffs’ attorneys. The 31 interrogatories bring the total submitted by Wu to 69, far above the 35 allowed under the state’s discovery rules, according to the Viacom/Paramount lawyers.
“The simple issues raised by these claims do not require such excessive discovery through interrogatories, particularly after plaintiff has taken extensive prior written and document discovery and deposed the persons involved in the decision to include plaintiff in a layoff…,” the defense attorneys assert in their court papers while also asking for $2,000 in sanctions against Wu.
But in their court papers, Wu’s attorneys state the interrogatories are “straightforward and highly relevant to the action” and that the questions were “specially prepared after defendants’ witnesses failed to answer these questions, claiming they lacked specific information during their depositions.”
Wu, 31, is “unequivocally entitled to this discovery,” according to the plaintiff’s lawyers pleadings, which further state the inquiries may help show that Wu’s layoff was pretextual.
Wu was hired in August 2018 as an executive assistant in the preschool production and development unit of the defendants’ Nickelodeon division and worked with artists, writers and producers to develop pre-school television series and content. He was promoted the next year to development coordinator and in 2021 to content development manager.
The companies assigned a group of employees, including Wu, to promote diversity hiring and content within the company, the suit states. Through emails and during meetings, Wu raised his concerns about the alleged lack of diversity among the staff as well as “ongoing patterns of discrimination,” according to the suit.
“Furthermore, plaintiff discussed the need to incorporate diversity within the creators and creative leaders of the content production,” according to the suit, which alleges the companies began to retaliate against him instead of addressing the issues he raised.
Wu’s supervisors called him names and said he was being “condescending,” “insulting” and “alienating,” the suit states. The bosses also told him that he would be excluded from important meetings and conversations if he kept up his complaints, according to the suit.
Wu believes that earlier this year, the companies began obtaining AI from outside sources that held the copyrights, the suits states.
“This posed series of legal and ethical issues regarding the copyright of the content that was being obtained and used without giving adequate credits to the appropriate people and/or companies,” according to the suit filed in October 2024.
The defendants resorted to intimidation and harassment against Wu and terminated him in August 2024 using the excuse that his job was eliminated, the suit states.