When Vigilantes Get the Wrong Man

There is a particular cruelty in being punished for a name you did not choose—for the coincidence of letters that, in the eyes of strangers, mark you as someone you are not. A graduate student in engineering at the University of Pennsylvania knows this cruelty intimately. He shares a first and last name with one of the seven Chi Phi fraternity members accused of participating in a 2024 gang rape at Cornell University, a case that has drawn intense public attention since the accuser, known as “Jane Doe,” filed a civil lawsuit .

The messages began arriving soon after. Strangers told him he should “rot in hell” and be thrown in jail. His friends and family received threats. His cellphone number was discovered and peppered with abusive texts. His face appeared in angry videos online. TMZ called him . He had never attended Cornell. He recently changed his LinkedIn bio to read, simply: “I do NOT go to Cornell” .

He is not alone. At least three other women have been misidentified as Jane Doe on social media, prompting a wave of videos in which women declare, “I am Jane Doe,” to show solidarity and obscure the accuser’s identity . A Marine Corps sergeant who shares a name with one of the accused had his address mistakenly included in court documents; his family received threats, including calls in the middle of the night and messages saying “I will find you” and “Rope is cheap and gravity is free” . His mother said people threw garbage and unidentified substances in their yard. “We really want to be left alone,” she said .

On Friday, the New York Supreme Court judge handling the case sealed several documents and condemned what she called “brash, reckless, and ultimately dangerous internet vigilantism” . She wrote that “innocent people often get hurt” when actors work outside the legal system, and that the behavior “must cease immediately” .

The phenomenon is not new. Sarita Schoenebeck, a University of Michigan professor who studies online harassment, noted that a Brown University student was falsely identified as the Boston Marathon bomber by online sleuths in 2013—a misidentification that persisted even after his death . “Once misinformation spreads, corrections rarely reach as many people as the original claims,” she said .

The Penn graduate student said the past few weeks have taken a toll on his mental health, and he worries that online vigilantes might find his home address . The case he is connected to, by name alone, continues to unfold in court. He remains connected to it, by name alone, in the minds of strangers who believe they are pursuing justice.

AI Image Disclaimer: The imagery in this article was created using artificial intelligence for illustrative purposes only and does not depict the actual individuals or events described.

Sources: The Seattle Times, The Washington Post, CNYCentral