It was an anonymous tip that led Nikko D’Ambrosio to discover his photo had been posted in a private Facebook group called “Are We Dating The Same Guy?” The post’s comment section brimmed with stories of women who said they went out with him.

“He told me what I wanted to hear until I slept with him and then he ghosted,” one woman wrote.

“Flaunted money very awkwardly and kept talking about how I don’t want to see his bad side,” wrote another.

“He is psycho!” wrote a third user, who also posted a link to an article about a man charged with sexually assaulting a woman he met on a dating app. That man isn’t D’Ambrosio. But in a federal lawsuit, D’Ambrosio claims the woman was implying that D’Ambrosio was the man in the mugshot.

D’Ambrosio is suing the woman and dozens of other members and moderators of the Chicago group, as well as various parts of Facebook’s parent company, Meta, over these allegedly defamatory comments that he said have tainted his reputation. A status hearing, the first in the case, is scheduled for Monday morning.

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Meta and the women named in the lawsuit did not respond to requests for comment. Many of the defendants in the case are still unnamed, listed as Jane Does 1-26 in federal court records, and so far no attorneys have filed appearances on any defendant’s behalf.

Attorney Marc Trent said his client, D’Ambrosio, is one of dozens of men across the country who have been harmed by false claims about them made in online groups like “Are We Dating The Same Guy?”

He said he is aiming to make D’Ambrosio’s case into a class action lawsuit.

The actions of these women “are destroying men’s lives,” Trent said.

But experts dismissed the lawsuit as a “bad idea” that is aimed at groups that help keep women safe.

“The service that [the groups] provide outweighs the danger that they could potentially pose to somebody that’s posted on them,” said Michele McBride Simonelli, an attorney specializing in internet defamation.

That service, Simonelli said, is a virtual archive women can use to find out more about who they’re dating. Women use these forums by uploading screenshots of men’s dating profiles to them and asking other members to provide any red flags or “tea” on potential suitors.

One of the first groups providing this service popped up in New York City two years ago, Simonelli said.

“Women decided they needed a place to give people a heads up, particularly in areas like New York with a large dating pool, that there might be some issues with safety or issues with people cheating on people,” Simonelli said.

Now, that group has more than a hundred thousand members. And similar groups have mushroomed in the U.S. and Europe.

Simonelli says the women who use these groups aren’t doing anything wrong, as long as what they’re sharing online is their opinion or the truth.

Matthew Kugler, a law professor at Northwestern University, said that’s not always the case. Kugler said comments about men allegedly committing crimes are prevalent in the groups, and knowingly and falsely accusing someone of a crime is defamatory.

But that’s not what happened to D’Ambrosio, he said, which is why Kugler believes “the lawsuit was a bad idea.”

“Much of what was being said about him in this group was frankly not that bad.”

Kugler also doesn’t think D’Ambrosio’s legal team will be able to hold Meta accountable. By law, social media platforms like Facebook have liability protection from the content their users create and circulate.

If anything, Kugler says this case has gotten D’Ambrosio more negative publicity than the posts about him online ever did.

But D’Ambrosio’s lawyer Trent disagrees. He said Facebook should be held liable for allegedly boosting defamatory content on its platform to make more money, like the post that sparked D’Ambrosio’s lawsuit.

Trent also believes the publicity of the case has been worth it for his client.

“Nikko is a victim,” Trent said. “There are a lot of victims. So we’re looking at the bigger picture with helping the male victims that are being negatively affected.”

Anna Savchenko is a reporter for WBEZ. You can reach her at asavchenko@wbez.org.