Jose Canseco Rape: Shockingly, He Tweets Out Victim’s Information to Followers

Former Major League Baseball player Jose Canseco was recently charged with rape. What’s even more shocking is the fact that he decided to tweet about it the moment he found out.

Canseco continues to question the accuracy of such accusations by tweeting more throughout the day:

Canseco later even tweeted a photo of the alleged accuser as well as her phone number:

Canseco eventually deleted these tweets but not after potentially 500,000 of his followers saw them.

Due to the release of private information about the woman, conversations over Conseco breaking the rules of Twitter have started:

According to Twitter’s official rules and policies, some examples of private and confidential information are:

- credit card information;

- social security or other national identity numbers;

- addresses or locations that are considered and treated as private;

- non-public, personal phone numbers; 

- non-public, personal email addresses.

Posting another person’s private information can result in suspicion and even termination of one’s Twitter account.

Canseco had previously “pleaded guilty to one count of felony aggravated battery and two counts of misdemeanor battery,” after a fight in a nightclub in 2001. He had to take anger management classes as a result along with being put on probation and fulfilling community service requirements.

Regardless of whether Canseco actually sexually assaulted or raped the accuser, his actions have not only violated the privacy of another person but also reinforced a rape culture that makes it incredibly hard for victims to report rape. We’ve already seen the consequences of rape victims being stigmatized for a crime against them such as the case of Rehtaeh Parsons. It is senseless to humiliate and doubt a potential victim of sexual violence given that they may have already been traumatized and violated.   

The accuser’s name and information was not shared in this article because she doesn’t need to face any further scrutiny and attention. And regardless of the results of this case, Canseco shouldn’t have released her information because his motives were clear: To shame her and cause public doubt in the accusation.

For developments on this story, follow me on Twitter @CalebPeng