Jornal Do Brasilia - Online 'witch hunt' sweeps up Asians misidentified as US rape accused

Asians who share a name with one of the men accused of raping a US university student have faced a torrent of online abuse.

The alleged 2024 gang rape of a Cornell University student, detailed in a recent lawsuit, has sparked an outpouring of outrage against the seven accused perpetrators. The case has sent internet sleuths scouring digital footprints for clues to track them down.

One of the accused is a Korean man identified by US media as Winston Lee.

The problem is that the world is full of people named Winston Lee.

The rage misdirected at people who share that name, some of whom live outside the United States and look nothing like the accused, lays bare the perils of a chaotic internet, where people distrustful of public institutions become digital detectives.

One of those wrongly identified was a Chinese American whose LinkedIn profile identifies him as a New York-based finance professional who graduated from Cornell University in 2020 -- four years before the alleged rape.

"You can't hide. Your future is over," said one message he received via LinkedIn.

"You'll get exactly what you deserve...which is prison!! You'll be gang raped there."

Another said that a "black magic" spell had been cast upon him.

In a video on TikTok -- where his bio reads "Not part of Cornell7" -- he said he had hired a lawyer to press charges against a woman who posted his phone number and his parents' address online.

- 'Mob' -

After a deluge of hateful messages, another man misidentified as Winston Lee posted a personal appeal to TikTok detectives.

"I am Indonesian and not the Winston Lee named in the recent Cornell University case," he said.

"Please verify the identity of the person you are looking for before contacting, tagging, or making accusations against someone."

After a similar flood of messages, a Chinese-American student named Winston Lee at the University of Pennsylvania added a disclaimer to his LinkedIn profile: "I do not go to Cornell."

Those appeals did not appear to slow what Reddit discussion boards described as an "online hunt" for the seven accused, drawing many users down internet rabbit holes.

With few verified details about the man actually accused, internet users continued searching aggressively for his whereabouts.

One Reddit post claimed Winston Lee was now serving in the South Korean army. Another user on X said she had received tips suggesting Lee had been spotted on Cornell University's campus.

People with names like the other six accused also complained about rage spamming and threats.

"These social justice warriors are literally messaging and harassing the wrong" people, said podcast host Brad Polumbo.

"These things should be litigated through the criminal process or through some sort of fair process, not through a social media mob or witch hunt."

- 'Hounded' -

A group of former Cornell students, who belonged to the same Chi Phi fraternity as the seven accused but graduated before the alleged incident, also complained of online smear campaigns.

"They are being wrongfully accused on social media of having involvement, are consequently receiving death threats and related hate mail," their attorney Adam Ford wrote in a letter to the university that was obtained by AFP.

"Most of them have had their employers and higher education institutions take adverse actions against them, including being placed on leave."

Digital sleuths have for years misidentified accused perpetrators of high-profile shootings and other crimes, exposing them to abuse.

Such misidentification can further roil an already chaotic information ecosystem and hinder the actual investigation by generating false leads, warned Mike Rothschild, a researcher who studies conspiracy theories.

"The wrongfully accused are often hounded," Rothschild told AFP.

"They sometimes have to go into hiding, or get death threats, or are even violently attacked themselves. And there is no penalty for being wrong on the part of those accusing them."

L. Araujo--JDB