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Further implications
The following comment has been taken from an article titled 'Seeking Rape Justice: Formal and informal responses to sexual violence through technosocial counterpublics' by Anastasia Powell, accepted for publication by Theoretical Criminology on February 12, 2015. The full text can be accessed at https://www.academia.edu/11093280/Seeking_Rape_Justice_Formal_and_informal_responses_to_sexual_violence_through_technosocial_counterpublics)
The use of digital technology, especially via the Internet, to achieve 'informal justice' by naming alleged rapists creates significant problems.
'There are serious due process concerns (such as violations of the right to the presumption of innocence as well as a fair and impartial trial) where alleged offenders' are named and shamed through informal justice mechanisms. Furthermore, in some instances formal legal responses, including suppression orders or defamation law suits, may fail due to the relative "ungovernability" of the Internet; where cross-jurisdictional issues, online anonymity and the sheer volume of material can all create barriers to protecting the civil liberties of accused persons...
There are also substantial negative impacts on victim-survivors of rape in this new technology-mediated justice environment. High profile cases of rape victim suicides following abuse on social media are tragic examples of the extent of the additional harm and trauma experienced by victims when the evidence of an assault never goes away - and when the response online via social media and the public sphere is all too often negative and victim-blaming... The ways in which communications technologies, and social media in particular, have been used to extend the harm of sexual violence through further harassing, humiliating, shaming and blaming victim-survivors...demonstrates how technologies are not unproblematically "liberatory" for women...
While such social media evidence may be used to facilitate formal justice in response to rape by demonstrating the victims 'on-consent...there is also potential for victims' own social media activity to be misused in efforts to discredit them in court. For instance, should a victim post about a holiday or a night out with friends after an alleged assault, or publish photographs and commentary that do not otherwise conform to community views of the traumatised mentality of a 'rape victim', this may be misused as counter-evidence of the rape...
The use of communications technologies by victim-survivors and their advocates...highlights that victim-survivors have justice needs and/or interests that are not currently being served by the formal criminal justice system...
The wishes and needs of victims are often diametrically opposed to the requirements of legal proceedings. Victims need social acknowledgement and support; the court requires them to endure public challenges to their credibility. Victims need to establish a sense of power and control over their lives; the court requires them to submit to a complex set of rules and bureaucratic procedures...Victims need an opportunity to tell their stories in their own way, in a setting of their choice; the court requires them to respond to a set of yes-or-no questions that break down any personal attempt to construct a coherent and meaningful narrative...Victims often fear direct confrontation with their perpetrators; the court requires a face-to-face confrontation between a complaining witness and the accused...'
Rape victim advocates suggest that the Internet will continue to be used by rape survivors as an attempt to gain 'justice' for as long as the legal system fails to provide other means through which their needs can be addressed.