Online vigilante see one of Cornell Seven in his Asian namesakes
Online users are bullying Asian men who go by the same name as a Korean suspect involved in the Cornell University sexual assault case, according to The Korea Herald.
This misguided backlash originated from a civil complaint submitted on 14 September by a former student. The woman claims she suffered a drug-facilitated sexual assault at a campus fraternity in October 2024. A Korean man named Winston Lee is part of the «Cornell 7,» a collective of past and present attendees accused of involvement.
With no official word about the accused persons, web sleuths across the United States and South Korea launched their own unofficial investigations. Alongside alleged pictures, claims about the Korean suspect’s military record, nationality and relatives spread quickly across social media.
Similar identities
A Chinese American student at the University of Pennsylvania with the surname Lee said strangers who wrongly believed he was the suspect bombarded him with hateful messages.
Convinced they had tracked down the perpetrator, cyberbullies told the Penn student to «go to hell» and insisted he should be jailed. This continuous harassment pushed him to place a clear warning on his LinkedIn page:
«I do NOT go to Cornell.»
He is far from the only person targeted by digital mobs. Another individual from Indonesia with the same name used Instagram to plead with people to halt their false claims and abusive texts.
The Ivy League student mentioned he has spoken with multiple victims experiencing similar digital attacks. These men have essentially created a support group to navigate the ongoing abuse.
«We’ve shared the same experiences of getting threats constantly,» he said. «Someone even told me they’ve had to seek therapy. It’s been getting that bad.»
