A UNIVERSITY OF Virginia (UVA) fraternity has filed a $25 million defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone.
The lawsuit, filed by the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, was in response to the now-discredited article “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA,” which told the story of a brutal gang rape at UVA that apparently never happened.
The story drew national outrage but was discredited following an investigation by Columbia Journalism School and was retracted by Rolling Stone.
Despite the story being discredited, fraternity brothers in Phi Psi said they endured awful abuse and feared for their safety after the story was published.
Cinder block and bottles were thrown through the window of a Phi Psi brother’s room, according to the suit.
They also had trouble applying to jobs, where interviewers asked questions like “Oh, were you in the fraternity that raped girls?” according to the suit.
Even worse was the abuse they suffered on social media websites that included threats of violence, according to the suit.
The complaint alleges statements like “Go ahead do it, kill yourselves, do the world a favor a****les” was tweeted at a Phi Psi brothers and “Its[sic] just a matter of time before a father like me will go in and shoot the balls off those bastards and burn down their f****** historic house,” was posted to Facebook.
The fraternity brothers also had their private information released online with a user posting all 60 members’ names, hometown, high school, and Facebook profile to a message board, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit isn’t the first to be filed against the magazine in relation to the discredited story.
Nicole Eramo, the University of Virginia associate dean of students, also filed a defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine in May.
Rolling Stone declined comment on the lawsuit filed.
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