Not really one to post here but I'm pretty wound up after reading the comments on a feminism page in response to a tweet about false rape allegations.

So the tweet in question was this:

"Women who falsely accuse men of rape should have to register as sex offenders, serve mandatory jail time and pay for the legal fees of the accused."

A follow up tweet beneath read:

"Men who actually commit sexual crimes don't even get these charges lmao"

I agree, it's bullshit that some men can be found guilty of rape or sexual assault and not have to serve jail time or be registered as a sex offender, just as I agree with the earlier statement about false accusations. This being a feminist page I expected the response to be similar to my own, given that feminism is supposed to be about gender equality, but what I found was many comments pretty much dismissing false rape allegations as unimportant.

There was a good who portion of commenters who seemed to believe that because false rape allegations are so rare (one commenter claimed only 3% of accusations are in fact false but I have no source for that) that it somehow de-valued the damage it can cause to the life of the accused.

Another popular opinion was that punishments for false rape accusations would prevent more actual rape victims from coming forward out of fear of getting punished if their attacker was not found guilty. Correct me if I'm wrong but for a rape accusation go be described as false, does that not mean there has to be sufficient evidence that proves the victim had lied? If a victim came forward but a lack of evidence meant their attacker wasn't found guilty, that wouldn't automatically make their claim false would it?