A resident of Springfield, Ohio, posted on Facebook a fake news about haitians that supposedly eat pets, unleashing a wave of disinformation which became conspiracy theory.
The publication of Erika Lee contributed to a national frenzy, amplified into political debates. Now, Lee has expressed his repentance for what happened and assures that he never had the intention of spreading hate.
The community Haitian has felt attacked, and the city has received threatswhich led to the closure of schools. According to an article published by NBC News, Lee had no direct knowledge of the incident and now she is full of repentance and fear because of the consequences.
- “It just exploded and became something I didn’t want what happened“Erika Lee told NBC News on Friday.
The publication that generated the conflict supposedly talking about a cat neighbor that disappeared; he neighbor He told Lee that he thought the cat had been the victim of an attack by his neighbors. haitians.
- Newsguard, an organization that monitors disinformation in Internetdiscovered that Lee was one of the first to post a message about the rumorscreenshots of which circulated online.
The neighbor, Kimberly Newton, told Newsguard that the publication by Lee in Facebook did not reflect his history correctly and that the owner of the missing cat was “an acquaintance of a friend” rather than a friend of his daughter.
According to NBC News, Lee claimed that he had no idea that his publication would become part of a rumor that would spread throughout the country. It has since removed the publication of Facebook.
Other information false
According to the American media, other publications have also contributed to the accusations falseincluding a photo of a man holding a dead goose, taken in Columbus, Ohio, but spread online by some as evidence of the claims about Springfield.
A graphic video of a woman allegedly killing and attempting to eat a cat was also found to have originated not in Springfield, but in Canton, Ohio, and has no connection to the community Haitian.
Local police and city officials have reiterated that there is no evidence of such crimes in Springfield, but that hasn’t stopped the lies from spreading across the country and sparking a national frenzy that reached the stage of this week’s presidential debate. .
Republican impulse
The former president donald trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, who was born less than an hour from Springfield, have repeated the accusations unfounded. Lee told NBC News that she never imagined her publication would become fodder for conspiracy theories and hate.
“I am not racist“she said with great emotion, adding that her daughter is half black and she herself is mestizo and a member of the community LGBTQ. “Everyone seems to be making it that way, and that wasn’t my intention.”
Lee said she pulled her daughter out of school and is now worried about her security with all the attention focused on his family. She is also concerned about security of the community Haitianwhich he claims he had no intention of mass demonizing.
“I feel sorry for the community Haitian” he said. “If I were in the position of the haitiansI’d also be terrified, worried that someone would come after me because they thought I was damaging something they loved, and, again, that’s not what I was trying to do.”
Migrant advocates
The groups of defense of immigrants have pointed out that these types of statements can be dangerous.
“The community Haitian-American in Springfield, Ohio, and across the country feels attacked and unsafe because at higher dehumanizing, discredited and racist conspiracies are being raised in American politics and continue to be repeated,” Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice, a nonprofit organization that advocates for immigration reform, said in an email.
“I didn’t think I’d ever get more beyond Springfield”Lee said.
