Women connected to a Cornell University student who sued seven fraternity members over an alleged gang rape are facing online harassment, according to her attorneys. One lawyer, Thomas Guiffra, told CNN that three women have been wrongly identified as the plaintiff and harassed, while the actual plaintiff is also being threatened. Guiffra said she is not doing well and is under siege on social media, where people are trying to identify her.
The push to reveal the plaintiff, known in court filings as Jane Doe, has played out openly on X and Substack, which have not acted to stop it. Substack author and podcast host Michael Tracey asked for information about her, arguing her identity was fair game because her lawsuit named seven peers as gang rapists. Aidan Thompson, founder of the AF Post, also asked for help identifying her, referring to a network of anonymous X accounts known as the burnerverse in a September 29 post.
Tracey published the name of a woman he identified as Jane Doe on Substack and said he found it in court records. He later deleted the post, saying he had made his point that high-profile litigants should not be allowed to proceed anonymously when accusing others of rape. Thompson posted photos and biographical details of the same woman on X. According to disinformation researcher Jared Holt, Tracey actually obtained the name from a court records aggregator registered in mid-September that appears to selectively post about polarizing cases.
People on X, including anonymous accounts and prominent right-wing commentators, have scrutinized the woman's appearance, made sexual comments about her, disparaged her boyfriend, circulated her Instagram and TikTok posts, and created AI deepfakes of her. Katie McKay, a senior associate at the victims' rights firm C.A. Goldberg, said the effort underscores how serious the plaintiff's privacy interest is and that anonymity protects her from further harassment and retaliation.
McKay said the defendants already know Jane Doe's identity, which is also known to her attorneys and the judge. She said their attorneys can seek her medical records, psychiatric records, and personal communications, and that the process is designed to vet allegations and allow a claim to proceed only if it is deemed meritorious. Annie Seifullah, a founding partner at Incendii Law, said New York has no automatic right to proceed anonymously, though the law recognizes that forcing survivors to sue under their real names would keep many from coming forward. Seifullah said clients have called her asking whether they should worry about being doxxed over their Jane Doe status.
Harassment of people who report sexual assault is not new. McKay noted that extensive efforts were made to protect the identity of Emily Doe, who accused Stanford swimmer Brock Turner of rape in 2015, and said she did not recall much of a doxxing campaign even after the victim impact statement went viral. When Chanel Miller identified herself four years later, the news was genuinely revelatory even to people who had criticized her. McKay also pointed to harassment directed at Amber Heard and E. Jean Carroll, saying interest in exposing victims is likely to be magnified.
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