She's a Homewrecker Website Shut Down Amid Lawsuits

The Rise and Fall of the She's a Homewrecker Website

In 2012, a controversial website named "She's a Homewrecker" launched. The site allowed people to publicly post photos and personal details about those they accused of being a "homewrecker" involved in an affair. But after facing lawsuits and criticism, She's a Homewrecker ultimately shut down in 2017.

Website Goes Viral by "Exposing" Alleged Mistresses

The She's a Homewrecker site operated on a simple, lurid premise angry people could pay $20 to submit photos and details about those they believed helped wreck their relationship via infidelity. Within months, the site went viral as thousands of unproven allegations of mistresses and affairs got posted for all to see.

To critics, the site represented digital public shaming at its worst. Supporters viewed it as empowering people to expose homewreckers and cheaters. But the controversial site walk a legally shaky tightrope in its efforts to profit off public humiliation.

Lawsuits and Criticism Mount

While site creator Ariella Alexander made decent money off Shes a Homewrecker through ad revenue and submission fees, the sites legal future looked murky. Those exposed on its pages often sued for defamation, privacy violations, emotional distress and more.

Public backlash also mounted. Critics noted the site made no efforts to fact-check inflammatory user submissions pointing the finger at supposed homewrecking mistresses and cheaters. Innocent people saw their reputations smeared when angry exes posted lies.

Attempts to Defend and Justify the Website

Comparisons Made to Cheater Site Dont Date Him Girl

In response to swelling criticism as lawsuits piled up, Ariella Alexander made several efforts to defend Shes a Homewrecker. She compared the site to the similarly controversial yet popular Dont Date Him Girl website, which allowed women to post detailed warnings about allegedly unfaithful men.

Alexander argued that if a site exposing awful boyfriends and husbands could successfully operate, so could one airing alleged husband-stealers and affairs involving married individuals. But in both cases, the accused individual had little recourse aside from trying to sue the site posting unproven allegations against them.

Citing Free Speech Rights

As Shes a Homewrecker entered its fifth year of spreading anonymous digital rumors in 2017, Alexander leaned hard on First Amendment free speech rights as her legal shield. She claimed the website should not face liability for the user-submitted content it chose to publish.

But opponents noted the 1996 Communications Decency Act only protected sites hosting third-party content if they were not also actively involved in creation or development of said questionable content. Shes a Homewreckers paid submission process and hands-on vetting of posts before allowing them to go live opened Alexander up to failure to moderate accusations.

The Final Days and Eventual Shutdown

Negative Media Attention Peaks

Alexanders comparisons to Dont Date Him Girl and free speech arguments failed to keep the lawsuits at bay or repair Shes a Homewreckers nosediving reputation. High-profile media outlets like Cosmopolitan, NBC News, Psychology Today published scathingly critical pieces on the sites flaws and harms.

Being the subject of an exposing post on Alexanders notorious site became an emblem signaling reputational death for those accused, whether fairly or not. With legal fees and public scrutiny booming, the controversial website entered its dying days.

Alexander Shuts Down Homewrecker for Good

In spring 2017 with over 4,500 posts still live on the site filled with toxic accusations, Ariella Alexander elected to take Shes a Homewrecker offline for good. She cited exhaustion with lawsuits and not wanting to pass more legal struggles to her children as primary reasons for shutting it down.

Some anti-cyberbullying advocates praised Alexander for finally pulling the problematic site. But she also caught flak both for taking so long to close it and for leaving numerous inflammatory posts still lingering online even in the sites archived inactive state.

The Aftermath and Lessons from Shes a Homewrecker

Cautionary Tale of Social Media Mob Justice

In the wake of Shes a Homewreckers shutdown, wider questions emerged on issues like privacy, slander, and mob-like calls to punish alleged wrongdoers in the internet age. The site joined the ranks of cautionary tales about trusting unproven anonymous allegations spread virally through social media.

It illustrated how while exposure posts promise catharsis for the angry and betrayed, they rarely lead to healthy conflict resolution in messy interpersonal situations like infidelity.

The Messy Ethics of Public Shaming Sites

Most poignantly, Shes a Homewrecker prompted discussion on what types of public shaming and possibly defamatory sites can ethically operate at scale. Few would argue Dont Date Him Girls premise proves more morally questionable in theory.

Yet the sister site managed to remain online and thrive where Alexander's homewrecker venture failed. Ultimately both sites trod an ethically messy line most similar user-fueled public shaming platforms inevitably walk often to the detriment of their own longevity and all parties involved.

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