In November 2011, as part of the Men Call Me Things twitter campaign, Australian author and radio presenter Marieke Hardy posted an article on her blog purportedly naming and shaming one of her long-term harassers, who considered himself to be anonymous.
Her original tweet, posted on the 9th of November, read, "I name and shame my 'anonymous' internet bully. Liberating business! Join me!"
It linked to this blog post (since taken down, see below) in which she incorrectly identified Melbourne man, Joshua Meggit, as her harasser. She said that he lives in Coburg (a suburb of Melbourne) with his partner and two children, and included a photograph of him, saying, "If you see him, say hi from me." She described him as "fairly sad man who should probably find another hobby", and noted, "The fact that he is a father surprises me a little, since the ranting, violent nature of a lot of his posts comes across like somebody who lives alone with a cupboard full of dead dogs."
On November 10th, Ms. Hardy removed the first post, and posted a followup indicating that too much traffic had made her blog "melt down".
On December 23rd, Ms. Hardy posted a retraction and apology, accepting that she "incorrectly identified Joshua Meggitt on this site as the man responsible". Mr. Meggit pursued legal action against Ms. Hardy, resulting in a confidential settlement involving a payout estimated to have been approximately $13,000.[1] Mr. Meggit subsequently initiated further legal action against Twitter on the basis of tweets published in response to Ms. Hardy's accusation. [2]
