Rainn Wilson quit Elon Musk’s X on Tuesday after expressing disgust over the platform’s spreading of misinformation around Haitian immigrants eating domesticated pets in Ohio.
“The Office” star called out Musk in a three-minute video posted to the platform for allowing the spread of false, “baseless” and “racist” falsehoods of the migrant population — in addition to slamming politicians like JD Vance and Ted Cruz for spreading the fake news, as well.
“Everyone was in on this horrific, racist, unsubstantiated lie simply to throw kerosene on the fire of immigrant hate and distrust,” Wilson, who has a long history of charitable work in Haiti, said.
The actor also lamented the “fun” space that Twitter used to create for social media users before being handed over to “foam-at-the-mouth, tin-foil-hat right-wingers.”
“Twitter used to be a fun place to post jokes for your friends and laugh at some memes and get some news as it unfolded. It is now an echo-chamber, cesspool of hate and misinformation. I’m out,” Wilson wrote in text that accompanied his video announcement.
Read and watch it in full below:
Twitter, AKA X for the foam-at-the-mouth, tin-foil-hat right-wingers, used to be a fun place to post jokes for your friends and laugh at some memes and get some news as it unfolded. It is now an echo-chamber, cess-pool of hate and misinformation. I’m out. Yesterday there was a… pic.twitter.com/9UTWTbaLaK
— RainnWilson (@rainnwilson) September 10, 2024
On Tuesday, Vance said that his Ohio office has received reports “from actual residents of Springfield who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants.” He went on to say that a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant and seemingly suggested that Haitian refugees are connected to a rise in tuberculosis and HIV in the city.
Earlier on Monday, Cruz asked for his followers to “please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us” in a cat-themed meme.
🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/96vvZhvuSv
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 9, 2024
Despite there being no evidence of Haitian immigrants stealing and eating pets, and local officials coming forward to debunk the claims, many Republicans have continued to push the false narrative anyway.
“In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” a Springfield police spokesperson wrote in a post on Tuesday.
The rumors about Haitian migrants started up after a 27-year-old, non-Haitian, Black woman named Allexis Telia Ferrell was arrested in Canton, Ohio, after police said she may have murdered a cat in a “residential area in front of multiple people,” USA Today reported. Canton is about 170 miles northeast of Springfield. Ferrell is an Ohio resident.
In conclusion, Wilson said X and Musk are only creating more division and bigotry in the country.
“The right-wing misinformation outrage machine changed the storyline to Haitians eating pets and within hours, millions of hateful reposts,” Wilson said. “That’s what X has become daily under Elon Musk — the world’s richest man who spends all day on his phone throwing online kerosene on the fire of ‘culture wars’ with racist, antisemitic, anti-immigrant bile and tweaking his algorithm to suit his agenda. So long, Twitter. We had some fun.”
Wilson concluded some time later Tuesday afternoon with what he assured was his “VERY VERY LAST TWEET”:
VERY VERY LAST TWEET: Also, I wish everyone here the very very best and hope that in the future we can agree to disagree with civility, compassion and love. The road is going to get tough and we need to work together despite our differences. Also? Don’t believe everything you…
— RainnWilson (@rainnwilson) September 10, 2024
In a statement to media Tuesday, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby also responded to the mounting misinformation against Ohio-area Haitian immigrants, stating: “What’s deeply concerning to us is you’ve got now elected officials in the Republican Party pushing yet another conspiracy theory that’s just seeking to divide people based on lies and, let’s be honest, based on an element of racism.”
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