Another response to a private question: is there any way to run an investigation like this if you absolutely can’t share the claims with the accused ahead of time and wait for them to give counter-evidence?
I do think you can make a post that (a) compiles public evidence, (b) presents new evidence, and/or (c) presents your personal experience while getting your facts sufficiently correct that a defamation lawsuit would be an unreasonable escalation and unlikely to succeed. When signal-boosting someone else’s accusations, however, especially if any of it involves taking their word for things, this is far harder and I expect almost always impossible.
If you have a hard constraint that you can’t run something by the accused before publishing, I think you have two main options:
A. Support the accuser in getting their own story out: helping them draft it, gathering supporting evidence, helping them figure out which claims to lead with and which to drop, proofreading, emotional support, etc.
B. Write something that contains only what you can fully defend. “Here are screenshots Pat shared with us of a conversation with Org that we found troubling.” If Pat is willing to go as far as forging evidence, and is good at it, then you’re just screwed, but I’m assuming you’re willing to take the risk that they’re not doing that.
Another response to a private question: is there any way to run an investigation like this if you absolutely can’t share the claims with the accused ahead of time and wait for them to give counter-evidence?
I do think you can make a post that (a) compiles public evidence, (b) presents new evidence, and/or (c) presents your personal experience while getting your facts sufficiently correct that a defamation lawsuit would be an unreasonable escalation and unlikely to succeed. When signal-boosting someone else’s accusations, however, especially if any of it involves taking their word for things, this is far harder and I expect almost always impossible.
If you have a hard constraint that you can’t run something by the accused before publishing, I think you have two main options:
A. Support the accuser in getting their own story out: helping them draft it, gathering supporting evidence, helping them figure out which claims to lead with and which to drop, proofreading, emotional support, etc.
B. Write something that contains only what you can fully defend. “Here are screenshots Pat shared with us of a conversation with Org that we found troubling.” If Pat is willing to go as far as forging evidence, and is good at it, then you’re just screwed, but I’m assuming you’re willing to take the risk that they’re not doing that.