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What are we talking about?<\/strong> The I Am Jane Doe movement.<\/span><\/p>\n Who’s Jane Doe?<\/strong> Jane Doe is a pseudonym commonly used to protect the identity of women in legal cases, including victims of sexual assault.<\/span><\/p>\n It sounds familiar.<\/strong> A 2017 documentary titled I Am Jane Doe followed a group of American mothers seeking justice for their teenage daughters who were trafficked for commercial sex through the now-defunct classifieds website Backpage.com.<\/span><\/p>\n So who does\u00a0<\/strong>this\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Jane Doe refer to?<\/strong> She is the woman who has accused seven men of sexually assaulting her in 2024, when she was an undergraduate at Cornell University, an Ivy League institution in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n The men were members of the university’s Chi Phi fraternity. According to her lawsuit, she was pressured into taking drugs and sexually assaulted while incapacitated.<\/span><\/p>\n In September 2026, the former Cornell student filed a civil lawsuit against the seven men, Cornell University, the Chi Phi fraternity and other parties. The allegations have not been proven in court, and no criminal charges have been filed against the seven men \u2013 dubbed the Cornell 7 \u2013 as of writing. The criminal investigation was reopened in September.<\/span><\/p>\n How did the I Am Jane Doe movement start?\u00a0<\/strong>Disturbingly, some internet users tried to uncover the victim\u2019s identity. Their efforts led to several women being wrongly identified as Jane Doe, and harassed and threatened as a result.<\/span><\/p>\n In response, people \u2013 mostly women \u2013 began declaring \u201cI Am Jane Doe\u201d across social media. Some men joined in too.<\/span><\/p>\n Beyond expressing solidarity with the victim, the movement sought to protect Jane Doe\u2019s anonymity by flooding social media with posts, making it harder for those attempting to identify her through online searches.<\/span><\/p>\n