‘Jane Doe’ solidarity posts flood social media after Cornell rape lawsuit

It was one woman, then another, and another, until a trickle became a flood.

Countless women, and some men, posted on social media that they were Jane Doe in support of a young woman using that name to file a lawsuit against Cornell University and seven fraternity members she accuses of raping her.

For many, claiming the name came with sharing personal accounts of sexual abuse and assault, joining the wave of solidarity that has surged since journalists at the college’s independent student newspaper reported on the lawsuit filing late last month.

The motivation for some of those claiming the name was a desire to offer the woman some protection in this digital age, in response to efforts by others to identify her online. They hope the flood of “I am Jane Doe” posts will confuse online algorithms.

The posts have appeared in all formats – video, photo and text – across a range of social media platforms.

The outcry reminds many of the energy at the height of the #MeToo movement, which exploded a decade ago. Back then, women shared stories of sexual harassment and assault in the wake of a high-profile Hollywood case using the hashtag phrase, which had been introduced in that context a decade earlier.

“These moments ... are encouraging more women to speak up and tell their stories,” said Emma Davidson Tribbs, founding director of the National Women’s Defense League. “They are giving people a level of bravery and comfort to come forward and speak their truth. And they can be incredibly catalysing for change.”

Change is what Wendy Lea Brewer wants to see, and that inspired her to post reels on Instagram with captions including “I am Jane Doe” and “It’s time to speak”.

Brewer, 48, a singer, has her own experience with sexual abuse and has spoken about it through her songwriting and performances. But she felt as though she was “screaming into the void” and people were not paying attention.

Outraged after hearing about the Cornell case, she went online and found a sense of community in the Jane Doe posts.

“We are all right here feeling the same thing, and we have had enough,” Brewer said.

The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sexual abuse unless they choose to publicly identify themselves.

The use of pseudonyms such as Jane Doe in lawsuits has grown in recent decades, said Diana Simon, a professor of law at the University of Arizona.

While the legal system is geared towards transparency, with the expectation that parties in a lawsuit will be named, there can be highly private or sensitive situations “where it would be in the person’s best interest to remain anonymous”, she said.

But that does not mean a person’s real identity cannot become public, especially if others actively search for it.

That is why Kelsey Combe made her “I am Jane Doe” post. The idea was that numerous similar posts could provide a form of online protection for the Cornell plaintiff if her identity were revealed, by making it harder to determine what was authentic.

“It was to confuse the AI models and stand in solidarity with her,” said Combe, a photographer in the Midwest.

She decided to do so after seeing a reel from a content creator who posts as “women_inamerica”, discussing how important the effort was. The post had already generated responses from many women by the time Combe made her own contribution.

The attempt to create confusion worked in a way Combe had not anticipated. She later discovered that AI had linked her to the case as the actual Jane Doe, incorrectly stating that she had sued Cornell. She was able to have the information removed, but not before getting a taste of what public scrutiny can be like.

“It was an interesting situation, because, the second that I sounded the alarm about it ... a lot of people were replying, ‘Well, you asked for this. You participated in this. What did you think was going to happen?’ And I was like, ‘Well, look at that,’” Combe said.

She said the episode only underscored what the solidarity campaign was trying to demonstrate: that there are broader systemic issues to address, not merely individual cases.

“It’s standing in solidarity with her, but it’s also acknowledging that, to an extent, we are Jane Doe. I think the majority of us are, because ... we have our own experiences with sexual assault,” Combe added.

“So we are all Jane Doe until nobody is.”