While intended to stay under-the-radar, it quickly spiraled beyond its original purpose and Donegan took down the document after 12 hours. "In the beginning, I only wanted to create a place for women to share their stories of harassment and assault without being needlessly discredited or judged," Donegan wrote in 2018. One of the men listed on the sheet, author Stephen Elliott, is suing Donegan — now a writer at The Guardian who covers gender and politics — for libel. In a July 1 court filing, the parties indicated their intent to settle; a hearing on the matter has been scheduled for this fall. Counsel for Elliott did not immediately return a request for comment.

Attorney Roberta Kaplan is representing Donegan in her case. Kaplan is the co-founder of Time's Up, the organization which grew out of the "Me Too" movement , but resigned from the group in August 2021 over her ties to former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Kaplan did not respond to a request for comment. According to court documents, Donegan sought protection under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (often referred to as a liability shield for tech platforms), claiming that she cannot be held liable for the allegedly defamatory content as she did not solicit allegedly false statements or create the content in question.