Thread by @JordanChariton

3 years ago, when a domestic abuser blogging for @HuffPost FALSELY accused me of sexual assault—w/ no editorial oversight—my life/career was upended.

Yet, HuffPost was legally shielded by Sec. 230 bc it was a blogger—not a staff employee. THREAD...

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1313511340124917760?s=20

There was ZERO journalism involved in this blog smearing me of sexually assaulting multiple women. I was not contacted for comment, the word alleged was never used, & it accused me of assaulting 1 woman I'd never even met (she came out after calling for correction-it never came)

I sued @HuffPost for $23.5 million dollars because allowing this LIE to be published, at that time, destroyed my career. I was now unemployable with a tarnished reputation and too much of a risk to potential investors to start my own media company. Yet, because media companies...

with multi-billion dollar corporate owners pay off our govt, laws (Section 230) are written to shield them from any liability...like having no legal/financial responsibility for allowing a 3rd-party blogger to publish a false rape accusation with no editorial oversight...

Bc of @HuffPo's recklessness, I had a major investor interested in funding a new media venture led by me pull out. Bc of @HuffPo's recklessness, I have been rejected by some groups to report on important stories the corp media ignores. All bc they allowed a lie to be printed...

At 34—after paying my dues journalistically & growing a following—I am making $75,000 less than I was 3 years ago bc I was forced to start a new media outlet without real funding (despite that, @StatusCoup has grown to nearly 90K subscribers on YouTube and nearly 2K paid members)

Although I never received $ from HuffPo, they did completely shut down their blogging platform after my lawsuit. The author of the original smear job on me—who @HuffPo never vetted to find out was a domestic abuser—said AFTER THE FACT he "rushed out the article"...

The @HuffPo author was part of a COORDINATED hit job on me—in which I have screenshots I never released to prove there was a coordinated group in private FB chat plotting to "add me to the list with Harvey Weinsten" & get me fired from @TheYoungTurks—yet HuffPo allowed the story

This reckless blog that published on @HuffPo would never have passed the most basic journalistic vetting at any other outlet whose model wasn't to allow, in many cases, bloggers in their mom's basement to publish whatever they want with zero editorial oversight. For 2 years..

I was forced to dig my career out of the ashes--now unable to EVEN GET MANY INTERVIEWS on critical stories like the #FlintWaterCrisis and #NoDAPL...all bc of a lie that @HuffPo allowed to be printed. More on that LIE here. foxnews.com/entertainment/…

To this day, when you google my name, false accusations of sexual assault come up on the 1st page. Luckily I met the woman of my dreams who instantly realized it wasn't true (and I'm lucky enough to be marrying in less than 2 weeks). But that disgusting lie will permanently...

live on the Internet for my eventual children to see & my loved ones to have to see. I DO NOT agree w/ Trump that all of Section 230 should be repealed. However, it absolutely should be revised to not give BLANKET IMMUNITY to reckless outlets like @HuffPo to derail...

a person/journalists' reputation and career and face zero financial consequence because a law like Section 230 gives them full immunity simply bc it wasn't THEIR EMPLOYEE who published the defamatory smear on THEIR PLATFORM.

FYI-there are MANY independent journalists/non-journalists who've been falsely smeared on the Internet that were not lucky like me to have help from their parents to pay for an amazing lawyer—@BillAlwaysWins—to fight a David vs. Goliath battle on my behalf against HuffPo and

others. I chose not to sue the blog author (he has no money & frankly I wanted 2 move on w/ rebuilding my career)-but I hope my story shows that "FAKE NEWS" is not only a right-wing Trumpian threat. It is also a daily threat from irresponsible, profit-obsessed clickbait outlets

I didn't write this for pity---I wrote it bc to this day I experience pain at seeing the phrase sexual assault attached to my name on the Internet. At the time of the accusation, I was diplomatic and did not state the obvious bc we were living in the early days of #MeToo...

Where a man was basically declared guilty by tweet damn the facts. But definitively--the accusation made against me was 100% false and the woman made it up (with quite a lot of goating from the HuffPo author and others in a FB chat). Despite this, I support the #MeToo movement..

and survivors bc there are A LOT of bad men in the world and workplace and MANY of those accused are guilty of horrific acts of violence and abuse. In my case, it simply was not true but, unfortunately, I was an early example of a herd-mentality rush to judgment. In conclusion...

I hope people who spend most of their days/lives on the Internet learn to more carefully/closely vet information and accusations of ANY kind--and not merely draw conclusions based on tribalism or ideology or whatever the hot Twitter hashtag of the moment is.