Reddit loves to be so logical and point out that the mass hysteria that children will eat poisoned Halloween candy is manufactured sensationalism by the media and nothing more than fear-mongering. But they don't see that the rise in false rape accusations is pretty much the same. Sensationalist news media will try to pinpoint your fears and confirm them for clicks and ad revenue. They are falling for the exact same fear-mongering while they preach about how enlightened they are for seeing through the lies of the media. This kind of media is driven to play off of the public's fears and thinking you're immune to it is downright naive. Especially now when we see half of the country brainwashed because Facebook data and metrics were leaked to a political organization designed to sway your opinions and confirm your biases. If somebody can try to sell you on your fears and tell you exactly what you want to hear, you're most likely going to fall for it. You should count yourself lucky if it hasn't happened to you yet and try to actually search for the truth in these things instead of immediately folding into confirmation bias.

This talk about "punishing false rape accusers" is also extremely dangerous. It's only going to create a chilling effect as actual rape victims will be too afraid to report their rapes. Rape is almost always a "he said-she said" situation and often comes down to hearsay. It's very difficult to obtain evidence of rape even if you do everything in your power to get it and do everything right. The natural reaction to being raped is to try to shut it out, try to pretend it didn't happen, and remove items or things that remind you of it - because it is an especially traumatic event. It's not something you can approach with your textbook STEM reasoning and assume that humans will behave exactly like the book says without anyone straying from the path at all.

When a situation comes down to your word versus some else's how can you do anything to prove it? Especially when there will be punishments for failure to do so. The safest option for yourself quickly becomes: don't report it or you'll go to jail and find yourself in both a court of law and the court of public opinion. You'll be denigrated as a slut, told that you wanted it but you're just ashamed, that you're evil and vindictively trying to ruin the lives of these nice boys. Rape victims already have so many obstacles to overcome in trying to get justice and punishing victims for not being able to prove it happened without a shadow of doubt effectively shuts down and blows up that road altogether.