Citation

Caputi TL, Nobles AL, Ayers JW. JAMA Intern. Med. 2019; 179(2): 258-259.

Affiliation

Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Medical Association)

DOI

10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.5094

PMID

30575847

Abstract

On October 15, 2017, following the public accusations of sexual harassment and assault against film producer Harvey Weinstein, actress Alyssa Milano encouraged victims to bring the taboo topic out of the shadows by sharing their own stories on social media. #MeToo was tweeted 300 000 times the day after Milano’s post and generated widespread support with scores of accusations made against media, political, and business leaders, giving voice to previously unheard victims. However, the implications for the victims whose perpetrators are not public figures is unknown. To fill this knowledge gap, we examined how internet searches for sexual harassment and/or assault changed following #MeToo.

Methods
We monitored the volume of Google searches originating from the United States that were indicative of sexual harassment and/or assault awareness (all searches including the term “sexual” and the terms “harassment” or “assault”) from January 1, 2010, through June 15, 2018. We further monitored the subset of these searches that focused on seeking ...

Language: en