Remember how quickly outrage spread on social media when word got out that authorities had shot terror suspect Usaama Rahim three times in the back after a Boston police officer and FBI agent claimed he’d lunged at them with a knife? How’s that possible, to shoot him in the back if he’s lunging at you?
Remember how quick everyone was to correct the record after a group of Muslim leaders viewed surveillance video and confirmed that Rahim was not shot in the back after all? Or when that “turkey sandwich” in Ferguson, Mo., was proved to be a gun, as police claimed? Today those examples of popular misinformation join several others to welcome their new sibling, retweeted around 24,000 times and counting.
https://twitter.com/petershall/status/611629944729243648
A complete lie, but 23 K people still RT'ed it. This is why it's so hard to discuss these issues seriously. https://t.co/rSj8EbE4hG
— (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) June 19, 2015
A complete lie? Is that just your white privilege talking, or do you have some sort of photographic evidence of your claim?
@AG_Conservative @RadioFreeTom Indeed. He was cuffed, shackled & wore b/vest, as per protocol.http://t.co/fnr1LuXxNF pic.twitter.com/heAjcjkzUe
— Rob S (@RobPulseNews) June 19, 2015
https://twitter.com/DWincl/status/611632022285475840
@DWincl @PeterSHall His feet are also shackled.
— Benjamin Hoffman (@BenHoffmanNYT) June 18, 2015
https://twitter.com/PeterSHall/status/611643931789398016
The “clarification?” As in, thanks for clarifying that my tweet is factually incorrect and needs to be corrected?
https://twitter.com/1979amish/status/611685854067556352
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@PeterSHall @DWincl Congratulations on the 22K RTs for a tweet perpetuating a falsehood. Don't consider deleting it or anything.
— JRMarlow (@JRMarlow) June 18, 2015
@PeterSHall perhaps you'll tweet that you were wrong??
— Mister Vandman “Yorktanan”❌ (@LifeOnAHorse) June 18, 2015
@PeterSHall @DWincl peter when you going to tweet that you are wrong??
— Eddie Wynn ?? KAG2020 (@eddiewynn7) June 19, 2015
https://twitter.com/LeftyBollocks/status/611671710526377985
https://twitter.com/HarryMorgan1937/status/611668742636982272
@PeterSHall @DWincl Why not delete this tweet if you know you have misrepresented the situation?
— Christian Lundy (@c_lundy1) June 18, 2015
@PeterSHall @DWincl Are you going to delete this tweet or are so many RTs and FAVs too awesome?
— obamuh (@obamuh) June 18, 2015
https://twitter.com/Roger247/status/611647304743809024
https://twitter.com/nicesportsman/status/611648236894441474
White privilege is publishing a completely bogus story and not feeling in any way compelled to correct it.
@PeterSHall @DWincl you can do as you please, but if I were you I would make w clarifying tweet. It's kind of important.
— Justin Carr (@OhiosNero) June 18, 2015
@PeterSHall @DWincl or better yet delete your erroneous tweet that helps no one during this time.
— Justin Carr (@OhiosNero) June 18, 2015
.@PeterSHall looks handcuffed here. What were saying about "white privilege" again? #CharlestonShooting pic.twitter.com/PHRk7tEEyX
— Sister Delecto Toldjah ? (@sistertoldjah) June 18, 2015
Certainly Hall must have tweeted something in the face of all this pushback.
https://twitter.com/PeterSHall/status/611632047900065792
“Even if he does have cuffs on and it’s only the vest…”? There’s no “if” necessary — only that correction to the original tweet, which, despite being proved wrong, is still up and has quite literally racked up more than 1,000 additional retweets since this post was started.
Unbelievable is right.
https://twitter.com/BenHowe/status/611685642586624003
* * *
Update:
Hall’s erroneous tweet finally disappeared from Twitter around 10:22 p.m. with this explanation.
https://twitter.com/PeterSHall/status/611720734243590144
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