Jennifer Lopez is once again in legal trouble over her social media activity. The singer and actress is facing a lawsuit for sharing paparazzi photographs of herself on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter), allegedly without obtaining proper permission. The images, taken during a high-profile Hollywood party in January, have triggered a legal response from photographer Edwin Blanco and the paparazzi agency Backgrid.
According to a report by the BBC, Blanco and Backgrid are demanding $150,000 in damages for each unauthorized photo Lopez posted. The contested images show the pop icon arriving at the Amazon MGM Studios and Vanity Fair Party held the night before the Golden Globes. Dressed in a sleek white gown and a matching faux fur coat, Lopez captioned her post “GG Weekend Glamour.” The photos quickly gained traction online, widely shared by fan accounts and fashion pages.
The lawsuit argues that Lopez’s use of the photos was far from casual. Instead, they claim the images were strategically used to promote her public persona, elevate her fashion endorsements, and increase engagement with her audience. “Ms Lopez’s unauthorised use of the images is commercial in nature,” the lawsuit states, alleging that the post highlighted her fashion choices and helped boost her brand visibility.
Backgrid and Blanco reportedly reached out to Lopez’s team in hopes of negotiating a licensing agreement for the photos, but those efforts were unsuccessful, leading to the lawsuit.
This isn’t Lopez’s first run-in with copyright issues over social media posts. She faced similar lawsuits in 2019 and 2020. Other celebrities, including Dua Lipa, Gigi Hadid, and Khloe Kardashian, have also found themselves in legal battles for sharing professional photos without licensing them.
The case raises ongoing questions about celebrity rights to their own image versus photographers’ copyright protections, especially in the age of social media where content spreads rapidly—and often without credit or compensation.
