'It just exploded': Springfield woman claims she never meant to spark false rumors about Haitians
'It just exploded': Springfield woman claims she never meant to spark false rumors about Haitians
The woman behind an early Facebook post that helped spark baseless rumors about Haitians eating pets told NBC News that she feels for the immigrant community.
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.
Either she's an idiot who doesn't understand why it's important to think before you speak, or she's a racist who is trying to weasel out of a shitstorm of her own making.
20Well it's not fair that she should have to suffer consequences for her own actions.
/s
7
"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.
172Literally had this talk with my son. "You are responsible for your own actions"
32What 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.
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Oh no, my actions online have real life consequences... Who would have thought?
96Yeah, 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.
38I 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
19I wonder if people who suffered damage from her words could drag her in court for that.
8
I wonder what she "meant to happen" then?
24All she wanted was a simple lynching of some "undesirables" by other people and no repercussions for herself.
Is that too much to ask?
/s
6They're not hurting the people they need to be hurting.
3
So did she get charged?
23With
6Fucking 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.
7
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!
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