SPRINGFIELD, Ohio —The woman behind an early Facebook post spreading a harmful and baseless claim about Haitian immigrants eating local pets that helped thrust a small Ohio city into the national spotlight says she had no firsthand knowledge of any such incident and is now filled with regret and fear as a result of the ensuing fallout.
“It just exploded into something I didn’t mean to happen,” Erika Lee, a Springfield resident, told NBC News on Friday.
Lee recently posted on Facebook about a neighbor’s cat that went missing, adding that the neighbor told Lee she thought the cat was the victim of an attack by her Haitian neighbors.
To be honest, although it was dumb, it was also unfortunate. There is no way we will get a hold on viral fake news because there will always be that one unlucky or stupid bastard posting something silly.
Don’t eat the pets, people!
Oh no, my actions online have real life consequences… Who would have thought?
I wonder if anyone listens to me…
okay. lets give this a try.
Trump is an insurrectionist, a rapist, a traitor. He’s sold national secrets. He cheats at golf, and cheats on his wife. He’s a pedophile. He’s a mass murderer (according to christian doctrine,). He’s a liar, an oathbreaker.
there’s only one solution
Yeah, I agree she is at fault for spreading harmful and fucking racist misinformation online. At the same time though it must be wild to have a president candidate pick it up and run with it. It’s a shame it took this kind of experience to make her see the potential harm of her actions.
“At the same time though it must be wild to have a president candidate pick it up and run with it.”
Which is why I worry we may see more of this. Attention-seeking hateful people realizing they can get the ultimate retweets.
I wonder what she “meant to happen” then?
All she wanted was a simple lynching of some “undesirables” by other people and no repercussions for herself.
Is that too much to ask?
/s
“I just wanted to be hateful and racist in private with my 500 Facebook friends. I didn’t want others to know that”
Its the same as with this woman who sparkt the riots in the UK recently, by spreading false information she had from a russian bot.
Actions have consequences. Even Facebook posts.
What exactly was it she posted? Like a direct quote instead of another summary, because all I’ve ever really heard about it was that she heard some Haitians from the friends neighbors took and ate their friends cat? Or something like that. I know some regions in Asia will eats cats and dogs. No idea if it’s even a thing in Haiti.
I know some regions in Asia will eats cats and dogs.
Ah yes. And Americans are all obese and only eat fast food.
Are we done with the stereotypes now?
To make it clear: NOBODY IS EATING ANYBODIES PETS.
Not in Haiti and not in Asia.
Yeah, it’s a straight up fact that cats and dogs are eaten in parts of Asia. That isn’t a stereotype at all. It’s well known and very documented.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-39577557.amp
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/what-countries-eat-cats
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_meat
https://worldanimalfoundation.org/advocate/what-countries-eat-dogs-and-cats/
https://www.thedailymeal.com/9-countries-eat-cats-and-dogs/11414/
Fucking love this comment. If only we could charge people for being ignorant, or willfully dumb, or just racist. Amazing how folks wanna throw their individual right to free speech away instead of holding “news” corporations accountable. One is much easier to do and has actual precedent, the other being a collapse of our democracy.
