The article had been widely praised; Dianne Otto, a professor of international law, called it "meticulous genealogy of some western LGBTI advocacy of sexuality rights in Iran." Long asserted that Tatchell intimidated HRW and Taylor & Francis with legal threats under English defamation law, while Tatchell claims he never made any legal threats against Human Rights Watch, and that Taylor & Francis only retracted the paper because it had claims that were unsubstantiated. Tatchell has been accused of intimidating or harassing other critics with threats of action under England's libel laws, at the time some of the most restrictive in the world. In 2009, Tatchell had induced a small UK feminist publisher to withdraw an anthology that contained an article critical of him, and to publish an extensive apology. In an open letter published in February 2016, 165 activists and academics cited the withdrawal of Long's article as well as other incidents and accused Tatchell of "intolerance of criticism and disrespect for others' free expression."