Twitter Trolls Are Posting About Fake Assaults at Black Panther Screenings

[underpants]

These trolls, clearly trying to ruin everyone else’s fun, have claimed to be moviegoers who were assaulted at Black Panther showings for trying to see the movie while being white.

These accounts gained steam last night claiming that they were assaulted by Black moviegoers while attempting to see Black Panther, often coupling their claims with pictures stolen from cases of real assault. The tweets, which quickly gained enough notoriety to earn a debunking on Snopes.com, seem to follow a general formula: a story about a Caucasian person going to see Black Panther, followed by a Black person confronting them, claiming some variation of “this movie isn’t for you,” before turning violent.

According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, the Los Angeles police department confirmed that there have been zero calls in LA about any disturbances showing the film, and there have been no confirmed reports of any sort of racially motivated violence occurring in relation to the film. This seems to be nothing more than an incredibly malicious use of social media. Recently, James Gunn himself tweeted in response to the rumors, calling them racist (he’s right) and encouraging readers to not be scared away from the theaters.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/twitter-trolls-are-posting-about-fake-assaults-at-black-1823103060

[Hav]

1. They seem triggered by the movie

It's not hard to guess why that is and they try everything to make it fail. The movie still had a 200 million start.

[underpants]

2. I saw this coming. Surprised they didn't do a preventive assault.

and it's not making a damn bit of difference

[Gothmog]

3. There are a ton of RWNJ conspiracy theories about this film

[Exotica]

6. The mouth breathers have a.....

[Demsrule86]

4. My son saw it on Saturday. He loved it. It is about time we have a Black super hero.

[Ms. Toad]

5. I've reported a half dozen of them.

Only one picture posted so far that doesn't turn up in about 10 seconds in a reverse image search.

Here's one response:

An update on your report
Thanks again for letting us know. Our investigation found this account in violation of the Twitter Rules:


samuth
@sharkwheat
Violating our rules against hateful conduct.
We appreciate your help in improving everyone’s experience on Twitter. You can learn more about reporting abusive behavior here.

Sad news is - 12 hours later, both the Twitter member and the offending posts are still there.

So I've reported it. Again.