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Silicon Valley 'sex assault list' with 'over 100' names circulated

94 points · 122 comments · Anon84

  1. Havoc · · focus · HN ↗
    Sad that they feel this is necessary.

    Also feels like something that could be life ruining if someone innocent finds themselves on the list by mistake/fluke. This is presumably crowdsourced which is not bulletproof

    1. add-sub-mul-div · · focus · HN ↗
      Interesting that every instance of sexual assault is preemptively doubted by default, whereas that's not a primary part of the conversation for accusations of other crimes like arson, theft, embezzlement, etc. False accusations of any crime could hurt the accused, that's more or less an unavoidable tautology of the legal system. There's just one kind of crime where public conversation obsesses about that, though.
      1. cthalupa · · focus · HN ↗
        Yes, all false accusations are bad.

        But sexual assault is the one area that is almost always taking two parties at their word, and very very frequently, the only court is the court of public opinion. That makes it rife for abuse in both directions - people doing it believing they'll get away with it because it comes down to their word vs. someone else's if it ever even comes out, since so few people go to the police, and people know they can lob an accusation out there and do a lot of damage without having to prove anything.

        I think the former happens far far more than the latter, but I'm also not going to wonder why people discuss the latter - it's real, and it happens. People discuss getting attacked by sharks whenever sharks come up, too, even though that's almost certainly not going to be something they need to worry about, either.

        This sort of list is exactly the sort of place where those false accusations can be really easily inserted with minimal vetting. I'd also bet it is an almost entirely accurate list.

        All these things can be true at once.

        1. tmtvl · · focus · HN ↗
          > it comes down to their word vs. someone else's

          Legal Eagle made a good video talking about how there&#x27;s a bit more to it than that, it was about the Platner and Salwell allegiations: &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nebula.tv&#x2F;videos&#x2F;legaleagle-she-said-is-evidence" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nebula.tv&#x2F;videos&#x2F;legaleagle-she-said-is-evidence&gt;.

          1. cthalupa · · focus · HN ↗
            I&#x27;m not able to view the video, but based on the description, I don&#x27;t know that it&#x27;s relevant - I&#x27;m not claiming testimony isn&#x27;t evidence, because it very clearly is?

            My comment is almost entirely about the court of public opinion side of things, though, not what happens in the courts themselves - because the topic is about a list as an alternative to the prosecution of these people.

          2. stvltvs · · focus · HN ↗
            The video is more widely accessible on YouTube <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=KvanHITPNEc" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=KvanHITPNEc
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