The messages told him he should “rot in hell” and be thrown in jail.
His friends and family received a barrage of menacing threats.
Strangers found his cellphone number and peppered his phone with abusive texts. His face was plastered across angry videos online. Even TMZ called him.
The messengers had wrongly concluded that the man was one of the seven Chi Phi fraternity members accused of participating in a 2024 gang rape at Cornell University, a case that has commanded public attention since the accuser, known as “Jane Doe,” filed a civil lawsuit last month.
But the man, a graduate student in engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, never attended Cornell - he merely shares a first and last name with one of the accused men. To make matters clear, he recently changed his LinkedIn bio to read, “I do NOT go to Cornell.”
As the Cornell case has fueled public debate, it has inspired a frenzy of online sleuths, who are racing to identify and expose personal information about Jane Doe and the men she has accused, a phenomenon called “doxing.”
Since Jane Doe filed the lawsuit, she has faced death threats and been confronted at her home by armed police after someone made a false report, an action called swatting, according to Thomas Giuffra, her attorney.
In their rush, the digital vigilantes have made errors - falsely identifying a slew of people who are not connected to the case.
At least three other women have been misidentified as Jane Doe on social media, Giuffra said, prompting a wave of videos in which women declare, “I am Jane Doe,” to show solidarity with the accuser and attempt to obscure her identity.
After the home address of a Marine Corps sergeant who shares a name with one of the accused was mistakenly added to court documents, his family received threats, said John Manly, an attorney representing his family.
The error led the New York Supreme Court judge handling the case to seal several court documents Friday and to condemn the harassment as “brash, reckless, and ultimately dangerous internet vigilantism.”
The Penn grad student said he has been worried that online vigilantes might find his home address, adding that “overall, the past few weeks have taken a toll on my mental health.”
The men accused in the Cornell case have not been charged, and The Washington Post is not naming them.
One man who shares a name with one of the accused, and who graduated from Cornell four years before the incident, posted a video showing messages he had received.
“You can’t hide. Your future is over. You’ll get exactly what you deserve, which is prison,” one said. In another video, he read a message from a woman claiming to be a witch who said she placed a hex on him: “Your soul will not find peace for the rest of your life,” she had told him.
The Marine sergeant’s mother said she and her family have been “absolutely terrorized with threats.” She said her son has received a torrent of hateful messages through social media, while she and her daughter have received phone calls and text messages, including in the middle of the night.
One person said, “I will find you.” Another said, “Rope is cheap and gravity is free.”
The mother said that they’ve tried to tell people they had the wrong person, but that people just called them liars.
People have also thrown garbage and unidentified substances in their yard, she said, including what looked like dog poop. She said it has been hard for the family to sleep.
“We really - I can’t stress this enough - we really want to be left alone.”
For years, online sleuths have misidentified the subjects of high-profile news events, according to University of Michigan professor Sarita Schoenebeck, who studies online harassment. A Brown University student who had been missing when pressure-cooker bombs detonated near the Boston Marathon finish line in 2013 was falsely named as the bomber by online sleuths. He had died by suicide a month before the bombing, but he was elevated as a possible suspect in the fallout.
Schoenebeck said the damage to people named by mistake can persist long after people point out the errors. “Once misinformation spreads, corrections rarely reach as many people as the original claims,” she said.
There are few reliable statistics on the frequency of doxing, but Schoenebeck said people turn to such methods when “they believe the justice system has failed. However, doxing itself lacks the fact-finding, safeguards and accountability that an effective justice system requires.”
There is no comprehensive national law that prohibits posting someone’s personal information. Some states bar people from publishing addresses or other information with the intent to harass or harm someone. A federal law also makes it a crime to share sensitive information about certain federal officials, jurors and others to threaten, intimidate or incite violence.
Some bystanders have targeted people more distantly connected to the Cornell case. While at least two websites feature the names and photos of the accused, a longer list of fraternity members has also appeared online.
“It wasn’t just seven. 50 other individuals knew what was happening and did NOTHING,” one post on Facebook reads. It includes pictures of Chi Phi fraternity members.
Some of the online posts have included former members who graduated before the incident and were not part of a group chat involving the accused, and who are now facing harassment, their attorney, Adam Ford, wrote to Cornell’s general counsel in a letter reviewed by The Post.
Ford said his clients have received death threats and hate mail, with some facing adverse consequences from their universities and employers, such as being put on leave.
These alumni “had nothing to do with the events surrounding Jane Doe,” Ford wrote in the letter. “Nevertheless, they are being wrongfully accused on social media of having involvement.” The letter was first reported by CBS News.
In his letter, Ford asked Cornell to provide letters to the alumni verifying that they were not part of the incident and to call on the public to stop harassing current and former members of the fraternity.
Cornell declined to comment on the letter to The Post, citing pending litigation.
The Penn student said he understands the human impulse to seek justice. “I salute those who are willing and strong enough to take matters into their own hands, especially when large organizations and institutions take too long to address an issue,” he told The Post.
However, he said that his case demonstrates that it’s more important than ever to fact-check sources and verify information.
“Mob mentality is real, and it can spread just as easily on social media,” he said. “People just need to be mindful of the impact our words and actions can have.”
CORRECTION: A man who shares a name with one of the accused posted a video saying he graduated from Cornell four years before the incident. An earlier version of this article mistakenly said it was two years prior.
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This article originally appeared on Washington Post at https://washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/10/11/how-cornell-rape-case-turned-into-sprawling-campaign-harassment/