Social Media Injustice In Steubenville, Ohio

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In Steubenville, Ohio, a sixteen-year-old girl was attending a local high school party with her friends. The girl was more intoxicated than others and refused to go home after the party was shut down. She then joined a group of guys who were going to another party and when they get there, the girl was too drunk to remember anything else. Two of the boys that were with her were Trent Mays and Malik Richmond. Both of them were football players at Steubenville High School, which was a big deal in small town Steubenville. The next morning, the girl woke up beside Trent Mays naked, which she did not mind, considering she had a crush on him. She then proceeded to go home where she found out what truly happened the previous night. The boys had posted photos of her being carried around and videos of her being made fun of on YouTube. She also received tweets on Twitter from …show more content…

One reason was because of the social media coverage on it. This case, in court, was based mostly on evidence off of social media. Even though both boys did not have intercourse with the sixteen-year-old girl, in Ohio, rape does not mean that you have to have intercourse. Also it is against the law to take nude photographs of any minor, even if the minor themselves takes it. Which meant charging both, Trent Mays and Malik Richmond, with rape and Trent with another charge of distribution of child pornography. There are also similar cases that have followed this case, such as R vs. Elliott. This case was about a man that was brought to trial for harassing three women on twitter. This was known, in Canada, as one of the first cases ever brought to court on nothing but social media as evidence. Although, one women dropped the charges before trial and the remaining charges were dropped, this is quiet similar to the Ohio case. Other than that, not many cases have been based off of only social media but many have used social media to support innocents or