Media outlet ScramNews forced to apologize & pay substantial damages for publishing Nicole Prause’s lies about Alex Rhodes & NoFap

For years, Nicole Prause and her numerous aliases have defamed, harassed and cyber-stalked individuals and organizations that have warned of porn’s harms or publicized research reporting porn’s harms. Two of Prause’s primary targets have been Alex Rhodes and Nofap (numerous incidents documented here: Nicole Prause, RealYBOP, & David Ley’s long history of harassing & defaming Alexander Rhodes of NoFap). Prause’s defamation escalated late in 2018, leading Rhodes to file a defamation lawsuit against Prause and her porn industry shill Twitter account @BrainOnPorn (October, 2019).

The lawsuit only increased Prause’s cyberstalking and defamation of Rhodes and Nofap, often via her @BrainOnPorn account. Prause also worked behind the scenes, emailing news outlets, trying to get her propaganda and defamation published. In January of 2020, Scram Media bought her lies, publishing a defamatory hit-piece targeting Rhodes and Nofap, titled “Academic receives death threats from far-right after crowdfunding campaign to sue her“. Unsurprisingly Prause (as RealYBOP twitter) and David Ley crowed about this wonderful accomplishment:

Now that SCRAM media has retracted the hit-piece, has published an apology, and has been forced to pay Alex Rhodes considerable monetary damages, Prause and Ley have gone silent. Not a peep from the serial defamers and harassers.

Below we provide:

Press release by Alex Rhodes’s UK law firm
The apology to Alex Rhodes by Scram Media, Sam Bright and Kate Plummer
Details concerning the defamation in the Scram article
Nicole Prause threatening DonorBox CEO (Charles Zhang) with a small claims lawsuit for revealing her lies, behind the scenes harassment, and malicious reporting to the BBB.

UPDATE – EXCLUSIVE: Leftie Scram Shuts Down After Losing BIG MONEY Libel Case

Press Release: NoFap LLC and Alexander Rhodes secure substantial libel damages and apology from Scram News (22.05.20)

Scram Media Limited and two of its contributors have apologised and agreed to pay defamation damages to US-based NoFap LLC and its founder Alexander Rhodes after publishing an article on ScramNews.com titled “Academic receives “death threats” from far-right after crowdfunding campaign to sue her.”
NoFap runs an online pornography recovery platform that enables users to connect with a supportive community of individuals determined to reduce or eliminate pornography use and free themselves from compulsive sexual behaviours. It receives millions of visitors every month and has been covered by a wide variety of outlets, including CNN, The New York Times, BBC, Business Insider, Time Magazine, MTV, The Washington Post, and Showtime.
The Scram News article contained numerous false and defamatory statements concerning NoFap and Mr Rhodes. In particular, the article wrongly suggested that NoFap and Mr Rhodes were affiliated with extremists (including anti-Semites); that they had brought a frivolous and vexatious defamation claim in the US Federal Court in order to stymie legitimate academic research; that they had incited extremists to harass and threaten the defendant in those proceedings; that a crowdfunding campaign for the litigation had resulted in a defendant being stalked and their address being posted online; and that they had published misleading information about the case by wrongly suggesting that the defendants have ties to the pornography industry in order to secure funding.
Scram has now published a full retraction and apology which can be found here. This acknowledges that the publication was wholly misleading of the work undertaken by NoFap and Mr Rhodes, of the defamation claim brought by Mr Rhodes and the crowdfunding campaign, and that neither Mr Rhodes or NoFap have incited members of such extremist hate groups to harass or threaten the defendant. Mr Rhodes’ defamation claim does not concern the defendants’ research, but rather alleged defamatory attacks on Mr Rhodes and NoFap. The legal Complaint in that claim can be found here.
Scram Media Limited has agreed to pay Mr Rhodes substantial damages and his legal costs. It has undertaken not to republish similar false allegations.
Unlike many initiatives that have traditionally raised concerns about pornography, NoFap LLC prides itself on being secular, apolitical, sex-positive, and science-based. It is used by men and women from all over the world, from a wide variety of backgrounds, religious and spiritual beliefs (or non-belief), sexual orientations and identities, ages, nationalities, ethnicities, and other characteristics.
Commenting on the settlement, Mr Rhodes said:-
“Our success in raising awareness about pornography addiction has resulted in us being the subject of a prolonged smear campaign orchestrated by elements who have close ties with the pornography industry, who have sought to falsely portray us as being affiliated to religious groups, hate groups, and extremists in an attempt to discredit us. Our website unites people from all walks of life to overcome porn addiction together. These elements appear to want to falsely controversialize the issue and misrepresent us to distract people from our actual views, the facts, and the emerging body of scientific research. Despite their ongoing defamation and disinformation campaign, we will continue to provide resources for recovering porn addicts.”
NoFap LLC and Alexander Rhodes were represented in the UK claim by Iain Wilson and Elisabeth Mason.

An apology to Alexander Rhodes and NoFap LLC

May 21, 2020
By Scram Media, Sam Bright and Kate Plummer

On 20 January 2020 we published an article on scramnews.com entitled “Academic receives “death threats” from far-right after crowdfunding campaign to sue her.”
The article contained numerous false and defamatory statements concerning NoFap LLC (‘NoFap’) and its founder Alexander Rhodes. In particular, the article wrongly suggested that NoFap and Mr Rhodes were affiliated with extremists (including anti-Semites); that they had brought a frivolous and vexatious defamation claim in order to stymie legitimate academic research; that they had incited extremists to harass and threaten the defendant in those proceedings (a Dr Nicole Prause); and that they had published misleading information about the campaign in order to secure crowdfunding.
We wish to unequivocally retract the allegations contained within the article and apologise for the damage and distress caused to NoFap and Mr Rhodes by the publication.
We acknowledge that what we published was wholly misleading and an inaccurate representation, both of the work undertaken by NoFap and Mr Rhodes, and of the defamation claim brought by Mr Rhodes against Dr Prause., and that neither Mr. Rhodes or NoFap have incited members of extremist hate groups to harass or threaten Dr Prause.
Mr Rhodes’ defamation claim against Dr Prause does not concern her research, but rather alleged defamatory attacks on Mr Rhodes and NoFap. The formal copy of the legal Complaint in that claim (issued in the US Federal Court) can be found here. We acknowledge that there was, and is, nothing misleading about the crowdfunding campaign associated with this litigation.
NoFap is a pornography recovery online platform which enables users to connect with a supportive community of individuals determined to reduce or eliminate pornography use and free themselves from compulsive sexual behaviours. Unlike many initiatives that have traditionally criticised pornography, Mr Rhodes’ website prides itself on being secular, apolitical, sex-positive, and science-based. We understand that it is used by men and women from all over the world, from a wide variety of backgrounds, religious and spiritual beliefs (or non-belief), sexual orientations and identities, ages, nationalities, ethnicities, and other characteristics.
We wish to apologise to Mr Rhodes, NoFap and our readers. and we have agreed to pay substantial damages to NoFap and Mr Rhodes together with legal costs in respect of the damage/distress caused by the article.
Scram Media Limited
Sam Bright
Kate Plummer

January 2020: Prause incites defamatory UK article in an effort to have Alex Rhodes’s “Donor Box” fundraising campaign removed

David Ley and RealYBOP team up to spread the factually-inaccurate hit-piece, with RealYBOP tagging DonorBox and its CEO (unconcerned about adding to Rhodes’s concurrent defamation suit against her):

In a legally perilous move RealYBOP retweets the defamatory SCRAM article:

Prause persuaded the outlet to print the falsehood that she had received death threats from members of the far-right after Rhodes’s crowdfunding campaign began. Hilariously, Prause began posting tweets making this phony claim 22 minutes before the campaign itself commenced. Its commencement was slightly delayed, and she impulsively jumped in based on the projected start time Rhodes had announced online.

So it was that Prause claimed the first death threats at 7:50 am, and yet another death threat a few minutes later (all before NoFap commenced its crowdfund):

NoFap announces its crowdfund at 8:12 am (22 minutes later):

Notice that Prause never provides screenshots of her claimed death threats. (She’s a serial fabricator.)

The SCRAM article contained other blatant, defamatory misinformation supplied by Prause as well. For example, it claimed Rhodes sued her because her “research was tantamount to defamation.” That’s absurd. Rhodes sued her because of her ongoing campaign of defamation and harassment of him and NoFap. None of his claims challenge her research (although many peer-reviewed papers have implied that she misinterpreted the significance of her research, and that her findings are consistent with the presence of addiction among her subjects).

She also claimed Rhodes engaged in “misogyny” and that Rhodes’s fans have tried to hack her Facebook and email, all with no support whatsoever. The SCRAM article stated that she “believes she is being stalked and that her [home] address has been posted online.”

The latter is especially difficult to take seriously, as she has publicly stated that she never posts her home address online. Prause herself has posted various fake addresses online, including an address she used for the malicious trademark application she filed in an illicit effort to grab the URL for this website! These addresses can readily be found. Save yourself a stamp, however, as any correspondence will be returned as undeliverable (as was YBOP’s attorney’s cease & desist letter for Prause’s trademark infringement).

SCRAM quotes Prause’s dismissive remarks about Rhodes’s suit, but did not ask Rhodes for his side of the story. Finally, SCRAM made the very dubious argument that because Prause claims she has no ties to the porn industry (despite images and other extensive evidence to the contrary), Rhodes’s Donor Box campaign to fund his lawsuit against Prause was fraudulent. Really?

On top of this blatant misuse of their journalistic pen, the SCRAM team deleted comments under the article when readers attempted to counter Prause’s/SCRAM’s untruthful and misleading statements with actual evidence.

So much for responsible journalism.

Shortly after the publication of the now deleted SCRAM article, and RealYBOP tweeting it, Alex Rhodes filed his amended complaint against Nicole Prause. In his new complaint the ScramNews article was added as a new incident of defamation:

The libelous SCRAM article is now an exhibit in Rhodes’s defamation suit – Exhibit #14: Factually-inaccurate, defamatory SCRAM hit-piece, allegedly placed by Prause (3 pages).

March 3, 2020: Even though her RealYBOP Twitter account is now named in the Rhodes’s defamation suit, Prause trolled “The Doctors” to tweet Scram’s defamatory hit-piece under a picture of Alex Rhodes.

Once again, she thus revealed she was the perpetrator, not the victim.

On March 23, 2020 Alex Rhodes filed his opposition to Prause’s motion to dismiss. PDF’s of the 3 court filings:

Rhodes’s new filings contain more about Prause’s hand in the ScramNews hit-piece, including Rhodes hiring a UK law firm to sue ScramNews, and the 2 authors, for defamation.