Are “make rape legal” groups meeting on February 6th?

Rumours that a series of male groups supporting the legalisation of rape are going to be meeting across the globe on February 6th are spreading across the Internet. The proposed meetings have been dubbed “make rape legal” meet-ups.

TL:DR –
-Referring to meet-ups organised by anti-feminist blogger Roosh V.
-He authored a self-proclaimed satirical article in 2015 about legalising rape on private property, though according to Roosh it was not meant to be taken seriously.
-There is no indication that the meetings themselves have anything to do with legalising rape, or supporting violence against women.
-They have since been cancelled.

The rumours trace back to controversial anti-feminist blogger “Roosh V” who has been operating blog ReturnofKings.com since 2012. The blog covers many misogynist and sexist topics including abortion, spiking drinks and feminism. The blog promotes the ideology that women are second class citizens, valued only by their “beauty and fertility” whilst men are valued on their “resources, intellect and character”.

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Only until recently, Roosh, who has naturally accumulated a large number of adversaries given the nature of his blog, has kept his blogging work strictly online. However a blog post on one of his websites proposed an International day to meet up which “will allow masculine men to regularly bond and converse with each other while providing support in the case conflict or disturbances affect their city or nation”

Whilst Roosh’s website and views are clearly sexist and intolerable, there was no mention that these meet-ups had anything to do with promoting the legality of rape, or any other kind of sexual violence against women. This was a description picked up by media and by many on social media because of an article Roosh authored in February 2015 – an article that he has since identified as satirical – that claimed that legalising rape on private property would help prevent rape all together. Roosh described the article as a “satirical thought experiment” and has claimed as much at the top of the article.

He also later tweeted the following

I’ll state once again: the “How To Stop Rape” article was satire. Neither me or my supporters want rape to be legalized. The media is lying.

However the meet-ups have been prolifically dubbed “make rape legal” meet-ups which has caused the stories to go viral across social media, despite none of the invitations or meet-up descriptions mentioning anything about rape or violence against women. (They did mention that neither women nor homosexual men are not allowed to attend, however.)

Because of the ensuing popularity social media has given to the proposed meet-ups, Roosh then later cancelled them all, claiming he could no longer guarantee the safety of those meeting up. Thus the meet-ups have all been cancelled.