Racist trolls have been using the movie to spread hatred since its release.
Black Panther opened to favourable reviews and a profitable box-office return last Thursday, but the occasion was marred by trolls using its release to stir up racial tension on social media.
Anonymous users falsely claimed that they had been attacked by black movie goers simply because they were white. The movie has a black director in Ryan Coogler and nearly an entirely black cast including Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan.
Under an image of a bloody and badly beaten white woman, one troll claimed: “I went to see Black Panther with my gf [girlfriend] and a black teenager shouted ‘U at the wrong theatre’ and smashed a bottle on her face’.”
Twitter user Joseph Muhatia (@trapafasa) debunked this by finding the original story which involved a Swedish woman and a groping incident in a nightclub.
Fake posts are being created to make black people look bad and the sad part of it is some people will believe them #BlackPanther pic.twitter.com/XzNMoxFmWs
— Trapa Fasa (@trapafasa) February 16, 2018
Another tweet showed an image of a bloody handkerchief and the caption- “Was at the Black Panther premiere but a group of black youths said this wasn’t for me. I am white. They then proceeded to assault me. I’m heading to the ER now.”
This tweet was quickly debunked too by this Twitter user using a reverse Google image search. The photo was in fact nine years old and completely unrelated:
lies pic.twitter.com/XyWfzzJ4jR
— ⵕⵉâµÅ½ ⴱⴰâµÂÂ?âµÂÂ?ⴰⵄⵓⵉ (@moroccan_tea_) February 16, 2018
Thankfully Twitter has taken action and suspended many of the accounts spreading false information.
Via: Independent.co.uk