In an effort to protect the true creator of a private online list of men in the media who have been accused of sexual misconduct, multiple women are taking credit for it after concerns arose that the author was about to be âouted.â
Dayna Tortorici, editor of n+1 magazine, tweeted Tuesday that she was aware of a possible story in the works at Harperâs Magazine that aimed to name the author of the âShitty Media Menâ list. Tortorici and many other women quickly posted on Twitter advising against âdoxxing,â in which a personâs identifying information is revealed online.
âItâs come to my attention that a legacy print magazine is planning to publish a piece âoutingâ the woman who started the Shitty Media Men list,â Tortorici tweeted Tuesday. âAll I can say is: donât. The risk of doxxing is high. Itâs not the right thing to do.â
âShitty Media Men,â a Google document, began to circulate in a âwhisper networkâ of women after the wave of sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein came to light in October. BuzzFeed exposed the list, designed to collect information on accused men, in an article that pushed its creator to take the list down.
Women feared the consequences of naming the author, who seemingly intended the document only as a way for victims in the media industry to collect information in a safe, private manner.
Nicole Cliffe, co-founder of The Toast blog site, offered to pay freelancers to pull articles from Harperâs magazine after sources told her the publication was working on the piece. The Washington Post and The New York Times both reported Wednesday that Katie Roiphe, the writer supposedly behind the story, had no intention of naming anyone in the article.