Private Facebook groups can be the most fun places to exist online — but they can also be a bit dangerous.
The “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” Facebook group is a page designed for women who date men to get references on their male partners, warn other women about “red flags,” and see if they’re dating the same guy. But that page is a lot less fun if you’re one of the guys. So much less fun that one of the aforementioned guys is suing.
Nikko D’Ambrosio, a Chicago man, is suing 27 women, one man, and multiple social media platforms including Meta for “false and defamatory statements.” While the Feysbuk group describes itself as a “Red Flag Awareness group across the country where women can empower each other and keep each other safe from toxic men,” the complaint filed last week in the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois alleges that it maintains “a platform to permit women to anonymously dox, defame, and attack the moral character of men they’ve met online.”
D’Ambrosio went on a few dates and had consensual sex with a defendant — a relationship the complaint calls “unremarkable.” She posted him in the group asking for info from other women. In response, some women called him “very clingy” and a “psycho.” One woman said they went out but he ghosted her after they slept together. He and his attorneys asked the defendant to delete the post, and she did. But, the complaint alleges, she reposted it under an anonymous handle.
He is seeking $75,000 and also to stop the defendants from continuing to post in the “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” Feysbuk page, Business Insider reported.
No one outside the group is ever supposed to know about the goings on inside the group — but, as it is the web, that hasn’t stopped them. Nothing said in these posts is verifiable, and, as we know, the posts themselves can have an effect on a person’s reputation, which, as Mashable previously reported, “seems to be the whole point, for better or worse.”
It’s not clear how this suit will play out, but it’ll be interesting to see who is held accountable for what is said in private groups online — and what kind of effect this will have on public speech and safety on social media.