Some of us didn’t need a courtroom to tell us that digital harm is real. We felt it in our bones the moment someone used our name, our picture, or ou
Some of us didn’t need a courtroom to tell us that digital harm is real.
We felt it in our bones the moment someone used our name, our picture, or our body like we were scenery in their show.
For a long time, folks tried to convince us that online violation was “no big deal.”
They minimized it the same way they minimized everything else that happened to us.
But your spirit knew better.
You knew that when someone forges your identity, they are not just playing around —
they are trying to rewrite who you are while you are still standing in your skin.
And that is a wound.
It’s not funny.
It’s not harmless.
It’s not “just online.”
It’s a stranger dragging your image into places you never agreed to be.
It’s the anxiety of wondering who has seen what, who believes what, and why your own name now feels like a threat.
It’s waking up in a world where your reflection has been weaponized.
For Black women, girls, and other vulnerable people, this hits different.
We come from generations of our bodies being misrepresented, mislabeled, and mishandled.
We were caricatured before photographs existed.
We were sexualized before puberty.
We were blamed for the desires of others.
That’s not inconvenience.
That’s harm.
And now, a court has finally said what you’ve been saying all along.
This changes the conversation for children being impersonated on apps, teens whose private images are stolen, and adults whose photos are edited into sexual content without consent.
It tells predators, trolls, and opportunists:
“You don’t get to rewrite someone’s identity and call it entertainment.”
Let that soak in.
Because for those who have been catfished, deepfaked, impersonated, or violated online —
this moment is confirmation.
You were never “overreacting.”
You were never “too sensitive.”
You were telling the truth before the law had language for it.
What’s changing now is not your worth —
it’s the world finally catching up to what you’ve known:
digital spaces are real spaces, and violations there cut just as deep.
And if you are reading this thinking, “I didn’t fight back because I didn’t think anyone would believe me,” —
you are not alone.
Today’s ruling is not the end.
It’s the beginning of a new sentence in our story — one where we don’t have to explain why a lie can feel like a bruise.
You are not crazy.
You are not fragile.
You are not imagining the harm.
You are a witness, and now, finally, the world is being forced to hear you.