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In April 2021, the hashtag #MJInnocent trended as social media posts and articles proclaimed that the late singer Michael Jackson had been absolved of molestation accusations by a California court: The implications of such postings were misleading, however, as no court had issued any factual ruling about whether the pop star (who died in 2009) committed acts of sexual abuse. In 2013, choreographer Wade Robson sued Jackson's estate, claiming that Jackson had sexually abused him for years when he [Robson] was between the ages of seven and 14. Robson's suit against Jackson's estate included MJJ Productions (Jackson's entertainment company) and MJJ Ventures (the entity that employed Robson and Jackson during the time of the alleged abuse) as defendants, on the grounds that those companies had facilitated Jackson's abuse of Robson. In April 2021, however, news outlets reported that a Los Angeles Superior Court judge had found those two companies owed Robson no legal duty and had no ability to control Jackson's behavior and had granted a motion for summary judgment in their favor: Although that ruling may effectively have brought an end to Robson's suit (pending appeals), it made no factual determination about whether or not Robson's allegations were true, and thus the ruling didn't absolve the late performer of anything. The court's action merely decided that Robson could not hold Michael Jackson's businesses (rather than Jackson himself) legally responsible for Jackson's alleged sexually abusive behavior.
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