'It just exploded': Springfield woman claims she never meant to spark false rumors about Haitians

[Dennis Donovan]

'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.

Sept. 13, 2024, 6:48 PM EDT
By Alicia Victoria Lozano

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.

Newsguard, a media watchdog that monitors for misinformation online, found that Lee had been among the first people to publish a post to social media about the rumor, screenshots of which circulated online. The neighbor, Kimberly Newton, said she heard about the attack from a third party, NewsGuard reported.

/snip

...and the GOP just ran with it from there.

[Diamond_Dog]

1. How about not posting embellished rumors online?

Or is that too much to ask?

[B.See]

14. Exactly. Trump, Putin, MAGA taking heads, and

reich wing pundits of pure fabrication (like FUX 'News) are good enough at creating racist bullshit of their own accord, without lending them help.

[2naSalit]

19. For those who...

Lack a sense of decency, yes.

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. Well sure...I mean they had concrete proof, one person told another person that told

another and nobody knows who any of them are. But, you know..

GOP are terrorists.

[LearnedHand]

3. Only after the idiot woman ran with it herself

If my neighbor said something shitty like that there’s no way in hell it would end up on a social media post of mine. Meaning, the original woman never questioned whether it was appropriate to repeat a shitty shitty statement. JFC people are so horrible sometimes.

Fucking leopards eating faces moment.

[stopdiggin]

11. agreed. but - really, isn't that what social media is (largely) all about? -(nt)-

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Yeah - this woman is kind of a useless, irresponsible piece of crap ...
But she is joined by absolute multitudes !

[LearnedHand]

13. Unfortunately yes

Maybe she’ll think twice before posting shit again.

[Deuxcents]

4. Ms Lee has some serious damage control issues to take care of. Her whole town is scared to death.

[3catwoman3]

5. If she didn't mean it to happen, then why...

…the bloody hell post that BS?

[RockRaven]

6. If you post inflammatory racist rumors on social media, you don't get to

disclaim responsibility for other people further passing them on. Don't post that shit.

[hatrack]

7. "The gun went off" - but this time it's social media, not real bullets . . .

Whatever, you ignorant fucking clown. Nice job.

[central scrutinizer]

8. Too little and way too fucking late

You piece of shit. Go to hell.

[DFW]

9. Republicans should know better

If they put on one of their blogs that foot-long hot dogs cure erectile dysfunction, the store shelves will be devoid of them within 24 hours.

[Qutzupalotl]

10. Dollars to donuts somebody like Russia helped boost this

because it's divisive and makes Russia look good in comparison. The racist accounts just ran with it. (There is a lot of overlap there.)

[keithbvadu2]

12. 'now filled with .... fear' because she now goes against the right wing meme.

[BeyondGeography]

15. The world was a better place without social media, part whatever

[JHB]

16. The GOP always runs with it.

Remember them talking about the New Black Panther Party like it was Obama's private army and would be setting up checkpoints at every intersection all across the country? All from a news clip that had four people, maybe, tops.

Or how Bill Clinton was bringing Chinese/UN troops in to take over? Just because some people saw Russian-built tanks on rail cars here in the US. They were actually ex-Iraqi stuff brought over for testing and target practice.

They believe what they want to believe, and they like believing things that validate their bigoted worldview.

[Johnny2X2X]

17. What a crazy story.

This is the evil that is the GOP. They take one off hand social media post and turn it into a racist and dangerous movement.

[UpInArms]

18. I bet she got excited with the reposts and likes

and thought she was special and powerful …

Too fekking bad it was all bullshit … stupid people have stupid ways

[padah513]

23. Yeah she did. Probably bragged about it to all her family and friends to let everybody know she started it.

But now it's effecting elementary grade school children, as if parents don't have enough to worry about with regards to their children's safety in schools, so she's covering her a**. Probably nothing to be done legally but I sure hope she becomes a pariah for a while.

[UpInArms]

31. Maybe she will close her fakebook account

And quit spreading lies

[marble falls]

20. Out here it's coyotes and other preditors. I just cannot imagine a cat dresses out to much of a meal ...

... I'd hope the GOP in Springfield take notice to the damage these nutbags create and vote Kamala Harris. As if Biden hasn't already shown, just having an adult in the room has been awfully nice after four year of wreck it donny.

[Skittles]

21. FAFO

HOW ABOUT JUST NEVER POSTING RACIST CRAP, HOW ABOUT THAT?!

[IronLionZion]

22. Coyotes or eagles have snatched cats

but GOP are all about amplifying any BS they can find or they just make stuff up to promote hate.

[Cheezoholic]

24. Quit Facebook now! I was on it for it's first 2 years and quit when it was obviously turning into a gossip rag

I quit after the algorithm changed and turned your friend list into 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon factorial. It became a place for immature assholes suddenly be able to bully the same people they did in high school 20-30 years later no matter where they lived and allowed modern day bullies, even worse, chickenshit bullies who would NEVER attack in any manner someone in public to pull their shit in person during the day and continue 24/7. Messenger is the most dangerous app ever invented IMO. It exposed the raw vitriol of people at their worse with no social guard rails. There is no news, no useful information. There are a thousand better places for news and information that are much safer if you just try even a little. The same to stay in contact with friends and family (which is how I first got conned into joining). Thats the worse use of Facebook and the excuse most people use. There is 0 reason for any reasonable person to be on it. Get off it, trust me you will thank yourself

This has been a Public Sanity Message

[mucholderthandirt]

28. I'm only on FB because some idiot thought it would be a better place for groups, rather than message boards.

I mean, message boards were designed for that purpose. FB was designed for people to keep up with Grandma or their school friends as they all scattered across the country/world. Then it turned into the go-to place for stupid people, rumor central, and it's basically worthless. Like X, like Instagram, like TikTok, all of it nothing but places for nonsense and lies.

[UTUSN]

25. Knr

[CanonRay]

26. Third hand bullshit makes the national debate stage

Good grief

[Dave Bowman]

27. What an idiot!

[Emile]

29. Republicans are so easily conned. They'll believe anything.

[Raven123]

30. The real question is what did she intend to happen?

Unfortunately we all know the answer. Regret? She regrets because of the fear she feels for herself, not because of the fear she has foisted upon the immigrant community. May her regret be long lasting and change her behavior.

[BoRaGard]

32. Memo to the G.O.P.: Lies are evil and have consequences

Read your Bibles,
for God's sake.

[Floyd R. Turbo]

33. Hello! I'm Erika Lee and I'm a fucking idiot!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13847277/social-media-springfield-ohio-haitian-migrant-pet-eating-rumor.html

[LAS14]

34. Maybe we're on the verge of a systemic shift, where...

...society knows how to combat conspiracy-ism. NBC news and Newsguard may be the human version of DebunkBot (posted here a day ago.) Let's hope!!!

[LAS14]

35. Well, I don't think she's an idiot. I can easily imagine...

... that she just posted a story about a neighbor who told a story about a neighbor who happened to be Haitian. She has a half black daughter. So I believe that she's not a racist. She's so not racist that she didn't realize how passing along that little detail could result in such chaos. That's all easy to believe for me. I'm glad she's told her story.

[republianmushroom]

37. B,S. she knew what she was doing at the time.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

38. Republicans

Are so desperate for thier stupid conspiracies to be validated by reality. They project all over the place too.

They would do anything to make thier beliefs be validated and they are desperate and take social media because reality isn’t thier forte they think they control reality and haven’t figured out wishing and lying about it real hard and searching for every bit of what feels like validation of thier bullshit does not make it the truth.