Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, lied that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, turbocharging right-wing bigotry and misinformation targeting the community. These baseless claims, as well as overt racism directed at Haitians, are proliferating on TikTok and garnering millions of views.
Users on TikTok searching for details about Springfield, Ohio, and Haitian immigrants are being served blatant misinformation by the platform. The high view count to low follower ratio on the videos also suggests that TikTok’s “For You” page algorithm is propelling this content.
The first result that appeared when we searched TikTok for “Haitians eating animals in Springfield, Ohio,” was a video claiming to depict Haitians eating pets in Ohio.
The video is actually bodycam footage of a woman’s arrest in Canton, Ohio. According to Reuters, a Canton police spokesperson confirmed that the suspect in the case is a lifelong Canton resident and not a Haitian immigrant. The TikTok has racked up over 575,500 views and originates from a pro-Trump account. The same video is populated when a user searches “Springfield Ohio evidence.”
Another top video under the same search has over 731,000 views and claims that Haitians are “killing people’s pets and don’t know how to drive, so they are crashing cars all over the place.”
The speaker ends the video by referencing the great replacement theory, saying, “Mass illegal immigration into the West could end the West.”
Great replacement theory is largely interchangeable with “white replacement theory” — it’s a racist conspiracy theory claiming that “welcoming immigration policies … are part of a plot designed to undermine or ‘replace’ the power and culture of white people living in Western countries.”
One of the top results we found when we searched for “haitians in springfield” was a video with over 676,800 views of a right-wing independent “reporter” interviewing a woman in Springfield and stoking hate about Haitian immigrants. The interviewer also encouraged the woman to describe herself as a “second class citizen.” The account that posted the video appears to belong to right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong. (Update 9/27/24: Cheong says this account is an impersonator and does not belong to him.)
Searching “Springfield pets” immediately returns lies about Haitian immigrants.
The top video has over 385,900 views and claims that Haitains “are legit eating cats in Springfield fucking Ohio.” The woman then plays the previously debunked Canton, Ohio, bodycam footage.
Users deserve to be served reliable information, and Haitian immigrants deserve respect, but TikTok’s algorithm seems to be failing them both.
