Abstract

In October 2017, Raya Sarkar, a 24-year-old Indian law student, joined the global #MeToo movement by creating a crowdsourced list on Facebook naming male Indian academics accused of sexual harassment. Similarly, a year and a half earlier, an anonymous list of men accused of sexual and gender-based violence surfaced on social media in South Africa, quickly going viral on a Rhodes University Facebook page and sparking student mobilization under the hashtag #RUReferenceList. This research draws on online data from X and Facebook in South Africa and interviews with survivors and student activists in India to explore why survivors and activists in both countries turned to social media for justice. While some critics argue that these movements undermine due process and unfairly target individuals, our findings reveal that both sought to expose broader structures of violence. They emphasize the importance of moving beyond a narrow focus on due process to develop a more nuanced, intersectional understanding of campus rape culture. Both movements highlighted power dynamics, revealing the impunity of perpetrators within institutions and the vulnerability of survivors, and prompted the creation and sharing of these lists.