In terms of damage limitation, it wouldn’t surprise me if she comes after the individuals here for sending messages to brands. I mean in the legal sense.
I have a legal background and I don't know what claim she'd have against us. Criminal law isn't my specialty, admittedly, but I do know a little about defamation, which is what I suspect she'd try to go after people for. Defamation is a strict liability offence - dependent on facts of defamation and not the intention of the defendant. As a person, she would have a right to sue for defamation. A permanent statement would potentially be libellous, rather than slanderous (Monson v Tussauds). It is no longer a crime. She can take action if she can prove that she suffered serious harm (s1(1) Defamation Act 2013 ("DA")).
For a statement to be defamatory, it must have lowered Josie in the eyes of right-thinking members of society generally (Sim v Stretch), cause Josie to be shunned or avoided (Youssoupoff v MGN) or expose her to hatred, ridicule or contempt (Berkoff v Burchill). She's been named, so the cases I know on identification are irrelevant. The statement must be published to a valid third party - that's satisfied as this is a public site. A repeat libel is still libel (s8 DA). But then comes the fun part: Defences.
Truth would be our defence. It is available under s2 DA and it is absolute. The sting of the libel needs to be true - in this case I would say that the sting is what Stephanie called out. That is what is going to cause Josie harm. Therefore it is a defamatory imputation of fact, the burden is on us to prove that she posted those stories, which there are screenshots of, so that's satisfied & any malice, knowledge and fault of our members is considered to be irrelevant.
Therefore, I would not advise Josie, if I were her solicitor, to take on a case of defamation. It would blow up in her face, she would lose money and she would further damage her reputation. This is a really abridged answer, but yeah it would be throwing good money after bad.
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