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.

  • Matengor
    link
    fedilink
    222 months ago

    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!