r/MensLib is Knowingly Spreading Lies about False Accusations

r/MensLib currently has a post on their sidebar that is filled with provably false information. This post has been on their sidebar for 9 months. I brought this to the attention of the r/MensLib mods a week ago and they have not only refused to take action, they also claim that it's not their responsibility to investigate the accuracy of these sidebar posts. Given how strictly the mods curate the content that gets published to that community, their refusal to take action on this subject qualifies as blatant spreading of false information.

"Fact Checking False Rape Accusations and Why We Shouldn't Fear a False Rape Epidemic"

Over the past week I have had a bit of a journey delving into the complicated world of false accusation statistics. Over the course of that journey I was directed to a r/MensLib post on the subject of false accusations entitled: Fact Checking False Rape Accusations and Why We Shouldn't Fear a False Rape Epidemic. A quick read through revealed a complete lack of understanding of basic terminology in the subject area by the author u/lefthandedlunatic. This post is an abomination filled with misused terminology, misrepresentation of certain studies, cherry-picking of data, lying by omission, and even completely fabricating statistics out of thin air. A more accurate title for this post would have been: "Why you shouldn't fear making a false rape accusation".

I didn't do a full fact check on this article at the time (I have since, and it is linked below) but I had enough information to bring the inaccuracies of this post to the attention of the mod team over at r/MensLib. My message to them focused on the claim "The majority of false rape accusations are made against non existent strangers the victims claim they don't know" from the original post, which is not only factually wrong, the justification the OP uses for this claim is from a study that says that false accusers rarely get named as suspects. This is not the only error with the post but it is a glaring one and many of the conclusions in the post is based on this misreading.

Correspondence with the r/MensLib Mods

I brought this error to the mod team's attention last Tuesday. They requested more information on the subject, which I provided promptly. They then informed me they'd look into it. Yesterday, after not hearing back from the mods in 5 days I checked r/MensLib to see if the post was still on the sidebar. It was. I messaged the mods again asking if they looked into the matter and if they were planning any corrective actions.

Their response was to mute me and inform me that they did not see any problems with the post. They claim the reason they did not see a problem was because "the OP was upfront about the limitations of his methodology". For the record the OP's methodology includes lying by omission, misreading key statistics, misrepresenting data, and outright lying.

Here is a record of my correspondence with the mod team: https://imgur.com/a/VHGeeL9

A Complete Farce

After I received this message I decided to do a full fact check on the original post. The full fact check revealed many other instances of misreading studies and lying. For instance, the OP claims"

" It turns out that 55% of False Rape Accusations according to this review are for hope of getting medical care or psychiatric medication by the very poor and destitute".

That report actually says:

"Only six cases (10.9%) were primarily motivated by a desire to seek medical attention or a need for medication".

Not only is the OP drawing a massive conclusion from only six cases, but the study says 11% and the OP claims 55%, a blatant lie.

Here is a link to the full breakdown of the post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Genobeam/comments/c7nue8/fact_checking_fact_checking_false_rape/

Silencing the Opposition

I posted the factual breakdown of the original post directly to r/MensLib. Since the mods couldn't be bothered fact checking their sidebar, I figured at least the community should be informed of my findings. This post never made it past the mod filter. I received the following message from u/delta_baryon, one of the menslib mods:

As said in modmail, you haven't actually said anything new or interesting here, other than just restate a limitation of the post, which the OP himself was upfront about, alongside some unrelated statistics.

Your post has been removed and that's our final word on the matter.

Apparently pointing out that the OP's claims do not even match her own sources is not new or interesting. The "limitation" of this post is really that the OP cannot read and does not understand false accusations statistics, but that doesn't matter since the post supports the r/MensLib narrative of this subject, which is that false accusations are rare and not harmful.

TL;DR

• r/MensLib is spreading lies about false accusation statistics via a post on their sidebar they have listed as a resource
• The Mods are aware that this post is filled with inaccuracies and lies and allow the post to remain without any corrective actions
• The Mods are actively silencing any attempts to discuss the errors in this post with the community
• The Mods are aware that the narrative spread by this post is false, yet support it by continuing to highlight it on the sidebar and silencing any dissent

Conclusion

The r/MensLib mods have been informed that they are spreading lies and refuse to take action. Not only are they not taking action to stop it, they have been actively silencing attempts to reveal this information. In other words, this is proof that r/MensLib is knowingly spreading a false narrative.

As a final note I'd like to point out that I gave the mods every opportunity to correct this action before making this post. I brought the matter to their attention privately and politely. When I was ignored I posted a factual breakdown of the original post with no editorializing. Only now that all other avenues have been exhausted am I accusing them of spreading a false narrative.