WEB OF LIES
Dancing in the Year of the Dog Racist trolls attack ‘Black Panther’
NOT EVEN the “Black Panther” is safe from internet trolls.
The blockbuster film that opened this week to global acclaim was the victim of a social media smear campaign.
Using generic pictures of bruised or bloodied women, some Twitter users circulated false claims of racially-motivated attacks at “Black Panther” (below) screenings.
“I went to see #BlackPanther with my gf and a black teenager shouted ‘u at the wrong theater’ and smashed a bottle on her face,” said a Twitter user, according to BuzzFeed.
The now-closed account linked the message to a photo of a blonde woman with blood flowing down her face.
The snap is actually of a 19-year-old Swedish woman who posted it last month after she was hit with a beer bottle after rejecting a man’s advances in a bar.
“Black Panther,” the story of an advanced African country, has been breaking ticket-sales records — but apparently not everyone is ready to celebrate.
Another troll grabbed a 2005 photo of Colbie Holderness, exwife of former White House staffer Rob Porter, who has been accused of domestic abuse.
“Went to see the #BlackPanther premier [SIC]tonight and my wife was assaulted. Three black women approached us and one said ‘This movie ain’t for you white [EXPLETIVE]and then attacked her,” the tweet said, alongside the picture of Holderness with a bruised face and black eye (left).
Other false tweets included a message posted under the name of Paul Nehlen, a Wisconsin white nationalist banned by Twitter. Whoever co-opted his name nabbed a snapshot of a badlybruised woman and wrote, “Ohio woman hospitalized after raciallymotivated attack at #BlackPanther screening.”
The picture was actually from a 2013 anti-domestic violence campaign in Serbia.
Other trolls took to Twitter to say people in “Make America Great Again Hats” were attacking black theatergoers — but those claims were also false.