The MeToo movement, an effort to publicize and criticize sexual abuse and harassment, was founded in 2006 by Tarana Burke, and spread virally on social media following the exposure of numerous sexual-abuse allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein in October 2017. Since then, the #MeToo hashtag has trended in at least 85 countries.
Afghanistan The #MeToo hashtag initially spread in Afghanistan where it is estimated about 90% of women experience sexual harassment in public, at school, or at work, but was quickly silenced when those who shared their stories started fearing for their life. Less than 1% of police officers or military members are women, and sexual assault is often ignored by law enforcement and the military. Rape threats and other types of harassment are common on Facebook and other social media in Afghanistan. Sharing stories of sexual abuse against higher-ranking men is especially dangerous for women in the country, and may result in the killing of the victim or her family members. Some women are also punished or killed by their own family for speaking out, to redeem their "honor" after being tarnished by rape. Despite the risks, some notable people such as Sarienews journalist Maryam Mehtar, and presidential advisor Shaharzad Akbar have shared their own #MeToo stories on social media. Mehtar experienced extreme abuse and several death threats for sharing her story about being sexually harassed in public daily, and was publicly called a "whore" in an interview with The New York Times by Afghan writer Jalil Junbish. He also called the NYT reporter a whore in the same interview. He later denied making the comments. Other women only share their first name or a fake name, and typically describe the story without naming the perpetrator to avoid reprisal. Sexual harassment was first defined in Afghanistan in 2016, though there has been little effort made to enforce laws against it. Rod Nordland and Fatima Faizi of The New York Times reported that a colonel in the Afghan Air Force was secretly and clearly videotaped sexually assaulting a subordinate in November 2017, and the video quickly went viral, but despite an alleged investigation, the colonel has not been formally accused of misconduct. The Ministries of Interior and Communications set up a phone hotline for women to call to report sexual misconduct from law enforcement officials, but a call to the line revealed the hotline will offer advice only about phone harassment, and stated if a person harasses you in person, to "slap them".
Australia In October 2017, reporter and journalist Tracey Spicer announced on Twitter that she was launching an investigation into reports of sexual harassment by powerful Australian men in the media in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations and the rise in public awareness of the #MeToo movement. Earlier that same year, Spicer had released a memoir, The Good Girl Stripped Bare, where she wrote about her own experiences of sexual harassment in the work place. Spicer later reported that she had received responses from 470 people about people in the industry, including Australian television presenter and producer Don Burke. The extent of the claims against Burke were published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and The Sydney Morning Herald in a joint investigative piece on November 26, 2017, where it was reported that "One name kept recurring – Don Burke." Spicer, along with Kate McClymont, Lorna Knowles and Alison Branley, won the 2018 Walkley Awards in the print/text journalism and Television/Video Current Affairs Short (less than 20 minutes) categories for their investigation and on Australia Day in 2018, Spicer was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia "for significant service to the broadcast media as a journalist and television presenter, and as an ambassador for social welfare and charitable groups". Later that same year, Spicer and Melinda Schneider launched NOW Australia, a campaign aimed at helping connect people with legal support and counselling.
Since then the #MeToo movement has now expanded beyond Australian media and the Australian Human Rights Commission has launched an independent search into workplace sexual harassment that is the first of its kind in the world.
It has been hypothesised by The Age that Australia's strict defamation laws make it difficult for more victims to come forward. The Daily Telegraph reported an accusation against Geoffrey Rush. He then successfully sued the newspaper for defamation; this may have a chilling effect on the #MeToo movement due to the lack of protection for freedom of speech. Yael Stone separately described sexual misconduct by Rush.
Tarana Burke and Tracey Spicer won the 2019 Sydney Peace Prize for their role in the #MeToo movement. The award was presented on November 14, 2019.
In February 2021, four women accused a former parliament staffer of rape, including Brittany Higgins who mentioned that she was raped in the office of the then-defence industry minister Linda Reynolds inside Parliament House in March 2019. Days after Higgins came forward, Attorney-General Christian Porter gave a media statement about a 1988 rape allegation made against him by a woman who committed suicide in 2020.
Austria Austrian director Michael Haneke called the #MeToo movement "a new puritanism coloured by a hatred of men" and a "witch hunt" that "should be left in the Middle Ages".
In 2019, the umbrella organization of Austrian filmmakers along with the VdFS, the VAM and the BMKÖS launched "#we_do!"", a contact point "against discrimination and unequal treatment, abuse of power, sexual assault and violations in labor law" for everyone working in the Austrian film and television industry.
On June 18, 2022, Austrian director Katharina Mückstein initiated a debate by sharing on her Instagram account her experiences with sexism and sexual harassment in the film industry since she was 19, such as when a lighting technician insulted her body every day on a film set and then said that he wanted to fuck her, and when she got the funding approval for her first major film, two established male colleagues tried to intervene with the funding agency so that she would not get the money, since they believed that she only got the funding because she is a woman. She also shared an Instagram Story that read: "Tonight a perpetrator will stand on the stage and will be applauded. And there is nothing we can do to counter that. It's devastating. I wish all those affected good nerves. #MeToo didn't even start in Austria". No name was given, but the only event of that kind taking place in Austria that night was the premiere of Corsage in Vienna, which led to speculation that Mückstein was referring to someone who worked in that film. Mückstein later said that she could not name the man for legal reasons.
Mückstein's Instagram posts inspired several women to share their own experiences with sexual harassment, sexism, racism, homophobia and abuses of power in the Austrian film and theatre community, which Mückstein then shared anonymously on her Instagram account, which generated a lot of debates, media attention and sparked a new wave of the #MeToo Movement in Austria. When Corsage'''s director, Marie Kreutzer, was asked about it, she told Austrian magazine Profil on 2 July 2022 that she learned about the rumors about one of the actors from Corsage "a long time ago", when the project was already underway, but as long as there are only rumors and no court-confirmed evidence, she will never remove or dismiss a staff member from the stage based on rumors, and if there are neither concrete allegations nor a procedure against someone, she would act as a judge if she reacted with consequences. "There were certainly reports about this man, but they only came from people who were neither affected themselves nor had anything to testify directly. One should stick to the facts, because passing on rumors can seriously damage people; I appreciate Katharina Mückstein extremely for her attitude and her commitment to film politics, we are definitely on the same side. But I would definitely have chosen a different path," she said.
Mückstein's proposal to give a speech on the #MeToo debate on the stage of the Austrian Film Awards ceremony at the end of June 2022 was rejected by the Austrian Film Academy, which choose to release a statement on the matter on their official website instead.
During her acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress at the Austrian Film Awards on June 30, 2022, German actress Luna Jordan said; "I'm only 20 years old and I'm a frequent victim of sexual abuse on film sets and in the theater. It is important to stand together here. Let's break the silence together," Jordan urged those in attendance, earning a standing ovation.
On September 2, 2022, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl has been accused of child exploitation and that children were exposed to violence and nudity on the set of his 2022 film Sparta. Seidl has denied the allegations. The Filmfest Hamburg gave up on awarding Seidl with the Douglas Sirk Prize, and the Toronto Film Festival withdrew Sparta from its program due to the allegations.
On September 5, 2022, two Austrian independent organisations launched VERA, a trust center against abuse of power, harassment and violence in art, culture and sport. It is run by the Vertrauensstelle for the field of the arts and culture, and the 100% Sport for the sports sector.