These Well-Meaning Celebs Helped D.C. Missing Teen Posts With False Information Go Viral
Over the last week, news of missing teenage girls in Washington, D.C., has received a dramatic increase of visibility. The narrative has also been shared by many celebrities due to the fact that many of the girls are Black or Latinx.
However, as the story has seen a rise in coverage, false information and inaccuracies have risen along with it.
The reason more images of missing girls in D.C. have been made available to the public is because of an effort made by police to give more attention to each missing person’s case. Several viral posts about the girls have suggested there has been a spike in missing children in the area, yet D.C. police confirmed this year is no different from any other.
"We've just been posting them on social media more often," Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman Rachel Reid said, according to NBC 4.
Some of the falsehoods surrounding the missing children have come, in part, from celebrities reposting the stories on social media. One post in particular suggested that 14 girls went missing in 24 hours, which D.C. police have said is not true.
Taraji P. Henson
Meek Mill
Eva Marcille
Russell Simmons
Here are the true statistics surrounding the missing persons in D.C.
Since the beginning of the year, the District has logged a total of 501 cases of missing juveniles, many of them were Black or Latino. According to the police department, many of them have been solved, minus a handful.
As of March 24, 22 missing teen cases remained open. On the D.C. police website, there were only photos of 13 of these children, who they considered “critical missing persons.”
Additionally, there's no evidence suggesting D.C. has a human trafficking epidemic. All of the juveniles that have been reported missing in 2017 left their locations voluntarily, said police spokeswoman Karimah Bilal.
The increase in transparency of missing teens in D.C. has been good for helping to locate them; however, it's crucial to only share information that has been substantiated
Singer Khelani posted an updated photo correcting the false image she previously posted