22/07/2023
Despite the lies pedalled by right wing pseudo-feminists and the Daily Mail, the threat of abuse to women comes primarily from cisgender heterosexual men. This month, the Cosmopolitan magazine investigates how men who have raped or assaulted women can use the legal system to silence their critics. In a wide ranging report, Catriona Innes says "There are Google Docs naming alleged abusers, private Facebook groups sharing dating profiles of ‘red flag’ men and various industries using Instagram to spark their own #MeToo moments, where women speak out against their alleged abusers. However, in this, they run a risk – the person named could take their accuser to court for defamation. According to UK law, a defamatory statement injures the reputation of another person and can be made in a number of ways, including social media and word of mouth, even if the person isn’t named. If a defamation case is taken to court, the victim has to prove what they said was true – which is notoriously hard to do in domestic abuse and sexual violence cases, when the crime often takes place behind closed doors".
