A journalist and photographer from the US newspaper visited the Marúbo people in western Brazil nine months after they received internet access through Elon Musk’s Starlink system.

References to pornography in their article, published in June 2024, led to international headlines about the 2,000-strong tribe’s alleged addiction to online porn, which its members deny.

A lawsuit filed in the US alleges that the article was “not only inflammatory but conveyed to the average reader that the Marubo people had descended into moral and social decline as a direct result of internet access”, Courthouse News Service reports.

It described these statements as having “directly attack[ed] the character, morality, and social standing of an entire people, suggesting they lack the discipline or values to function in the modern world”.

It seeks $180 million (around £133m) in damages from The New York Times and other outlets who picked up the story, including TMZ.