A major shock came recently after Wired shared an article about Madison Square Garden’s practices of assign public figures a level of “risk” as well as labelling queer artists or those with queer fanbases as “LGBTQIA.” This resulted in MSG responding with a lawsuit yesterday, alleging the article to be defamatory. As Paste Magazine reports, the July 9th Wired article alleged that MSG assigned figures who had performed or attended The Garden as “low,” “medium” or “high” risk, with some being placed into a “DO NOT HOST” category in addition to the previously mentioned LGBTQIA label.

The defendants in the suit have been named as Wired contributing editor Noah Schachtman, reporter Maddy Varner and Global Editorial Director Katie Drummond, with the complaint alleging “Wired and Noah Schachtman reported false and purposely misleading “facts” to fit a desired agenda—they took information from a CRM [Customer Relationship Management] platform and manipulated it into a false story of LGBTQIA surveillance, risk, and discrimination.”

The complaint goes further to allege that the information was received unethically via hacktivists, presented in a cherry-picked manner in an attempt to smear MSG. The Garden also released an accompanying statement highlighting the company’s own outreach efforts to queer communities, such as vouchers for organizations and Pride events. “Wired knew there was no nefarious ‘list’ of gay celebrities—the ‘list’ they refer to was created by Wired from their own manipulation of the stolen data,” the complaint states.

Wired, meanwhile, defended the reporting in it’s own statement. “Earlier today, WIRED learned that Madison Square Garden was suing us for our accurate reporting. We stand by this reporting, and plan to vigorously defend it against this baseless and ridiculous lawsuit. We look forward to continuing our coverage of MSG, and on billionaire James Dolan’s use of technology across his entertainment empire. It’s one part of our wider mission and the critical job of journalists, now more than ever: holding power to account.”

It’s far from the first time Wired and MSG have come into conflict, with Wired previously publishing a report alleging previous cases of tracking of both trans women and anti-Dolan protestors, some of whom have even been removed from the venue. With the lawsuit filed yesterday, it remains to be seen how the situation will resolve for both parties. A case of discrimination or of libel, the lawsuit regardless comes as a shock to the world of music.