Cornell rape case sparks a viral response. Women say 'it isn't just Cornell' - USA Today

Those are the words flooding TikTok, Instagram and Reddit as users join in a viral campaign to halt those who are trying to uncover the identity of the true Jane Doe, a young woman who accused members of a Cornell fraternity of gang raping her in October 2024.

"Since they want to reveal Jane Doe’s identity. We won’t let them. I’m Cornell’s Jane Doe," reads the text in a TikTok with more than six million views. "We’re all Jane doe until none of us are," reads another. "Everyone saying that they are Cornell’s Jane Doe is crazy cuz I am too," another user posted with the hashtag, #metoo.

In a modern "Spartacus" or "Radio Rebel" maneuver, the posts are an effort to inundate the internet with false leads and fake identities, creating a digital buffer to help protect the survivor’s privacy.

Some of the videos are in direct response to calls by content creator and political commentator Michael Tracey to publish the name and identifying information of Jane Doe.

"If you happen to know who this Cornell 'Jane Doe' is, get in touch and I would be happy to publish her name and identifying information," Tracey wrote on X.

The posts have become the latest flashpoint in a broader reckoning around sexual violence. For women who took an active role in the #MeToo movement, the case is a sobering reminder that the safer campuses and workplaces they hoped to create for the girls who came after them remain a work in progress.

"There actually hasn’t been coverage of a big campus sexual violence story in years," says Nicole Bedera, the author of "On the Wrong Side: How Universities Protect Perpetrators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence," noting that campus sexual violence rates have remained stagnant. "It's happening whether or not we talk about it, and so I'm glad we're talking about it."

There's been a central message from users posting about the lawsuit: This isn’t just happening at Cornell, and it isn’t just occurring on college campuses. It’s a symptom of a larger problem that allows perpetrators of sexual violence and misogyny to go unchecked, while survivors are forced to carry the burden of an experience they didn’t ask for.

"What he did has affected my ability to work, to go to school, to be around people, to function. I have night terrors almost every single night that I don’t take medication to go to sleep," one woman posted regarding her sexual assault from eight years ago. "They say don’t ruin these men’s lives, but my life was ruined."

Some survivors are sharing their stories publicly for the first time, while others say the Cornell incident caused them to reflect on their own experiences with renewed scrutiny.

"I’m Jane Doe. My story happened at 16," creator Sarah Lupica posted in a TikTok to her 1.5 million followers, detailing a sexual assault she’s "just tried to forget about." Influencer Haley Bea Kalil, better known as Haley Baylee, shared, "I stand with Jane Doe because I am a Jane Doe."

They’ve shared about the confusing lines when an assault happens within a friendship or romantic relationship, how their social circles dwindled after their friends continued to associate with their abuser, and the ways the sexual assault continues to shape their lives, years after it happened.

"I was sexually assaulted two months into my freshman year at UCLA. I had just turned 19. I’m almost 30. It’s been 11 years, I lost about 10 years of my life solidly to PTSD and really bad depression," another woman shared.

It's not unusual for sexual assault survivors to come forward with additional details over time, or even initially deny that an assault occurred.

In Bedera's research on campus sexual violence, she has found that many survivors hesitate to fully disclose what happened because they're trying to understand the potential consequences of reporting sexual abuse incidents. Students may worry about getting in trouble for underage drinking, drug use or other prohibited activities that occurred around the time of an assault, whether the victim consented to engage in them or not.

"They have questions like, 'If I report, what happens next? Could I get in trouble for using drugs? Could I get expelled?'" Bedera explained. "And so what they tend to do is say nothing happened."

Experts say the public reactions to high-profile sexual assault allegations can send a message to other survivors about how they might be treated if they come forward.

"We should be offering empathy to the survivor to understand why she might have made the decision she made," Bedera said. "Jane Doe is not the first person to ever do this... what does that tell us about our system, that victims don't feel like they can vulnerably share the truth?"

Some of this "victim-blaming," Bedera said, comes from misogyny. But it also can stem from fear.

"People want to think that this violence doesn't just doesn't happen. To be in denial that this kind of thing can happen when you send your daughter to college," she told USA TODAY. "But that too is a misogynistic reaction that denies the realities of sexual violence for women."

Rather than scrutinizing the victim, one right course of action is to "center survivors," Crystal Justice, the former Chief External Affairs Officer of the National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline), previously told USA TODAY.

"We encourage you to learn to recognize the warning signs of abuse, listen to survivors when they share their experience with you (and) offer help to survivors when it’s safe to do so," Justice said.

Rachel Hale’s role covering Youth Mental Health at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input. Reach her at rhale@usatoday.com and@rachelleighhale on X.