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Several celebrities and media figures used their social media pull this week to draw attention to what they thought was the sudden disappearance of more than a dozen black and Latino girls in the Washington, D.C., area. -- DanielleMoodie-Mills @DeeTwoCents: "Can someone explain to me how 14 black girls go missing in 24 hours in DC and it's not a goddamn news story?!?" https://twitter.com/DeeTwoCents/statu... -- Check out the nearly 50,000 retweets of that post since Thursday night. The photo attached to that tweet — which features a girl who was last seen in 2014 — was shared by Def Jam cofounder Russell Simmons on his Instagram feed, but it originated at the site Entertainment for Breakfast and quickly went viral.
LL Cool J: "I want #missingdcgirls trending!!!!!" -- Sean Diddy Combs: "My prayers go out to the families effected by this tragedy. God bless #PrayForDC #FindOurGirls" -- Kyle Richards: "How is it I am just hearing about the #missingdcgirls and only from social media ?? Why isn't this being talked about more?" -- Soledad O'Brien: "Yeah. This: [@DeeTwoCents link]" -- Dennis Mullen: "Soledad O'Brien Let me posit this. Maybe it's b/c the media has become unhealthily obsessed with all things Donald Trump." Soledad O'Brien: "Sadly, not just that. The media has a long history of fanatical attention to covering missing young women if they're white and attractive." --- One reason it might not have been “a goddamn news story” is that the post wasn’t accurate.
Many celebrities shared a viral post saying 14 girls went missing from D.C. in a single day. Police say that's not true. -- TMZ: "D.C. Missing Girls, Cops Say They're Runaways, Not Crime Victims" -- The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children certainly has a vested interest, but even it is trying to correct the record: "Hi @llcoolj, we'd love to have a conversation with you about #missingdcgirls. We know for sure that this isn't over a 24 hour period. @llcoolj we work closely with @DCPoliceDept. Over the last 10 years, there hasn't been a spike with #missingdcgirls or children." -- But, the Women’s March statement said “the disappearance of girls of color … is far from new, and it’s on the rise.” According to NBC 4 in Washington, police said Friday that “at no point in recent weeks have 14 girls disappeared from D.C. in a single day.” The city’s mayor retweeted the story Friday afternoon.
JJ MacNab of Forbes did an admirable job putting things into perspective: "A huge right-wing conspiracy theory (#pizzagate) seems to be merging with the relatively new left-wing conspiracy theory (#missingdcgirls) The former claims that John Podesta and Hillary Clinton are operating a child sex ring out of a DC pizza parlor. The former claims that John Podesta and Hillary Clinton are operating a child sex ring out of a DC pizza parlor. The rate of missing children in DC is consistent with prior years and almost all of the 12 girls in question had run away from home before. Recently, the DC police started using social media to get the public's aid in finding missing kids. The press has amplified those posts. That's all good." …
"This story, however, went off into the weeds with wild tales of pedophile rings who have sold DC girls as sex slaves. The DC Police have tried to debunk these theories, but the conspiracy-minded don't really care. Remember playing "telephone" as a kid? With each retelling, this story gets exaggerated. There's no epidemic. There's no sign of foul play. NBC has tried to debunk this growing conspiracy theory. Many of the missing teens have already returned home, but the Internet bubble doesn't really adjust for new info. While it's heartbreaking for a parent whose child is missing, it's really rare that someone in DC stays missing. Stats from DC Police: https://t.co/cuFH8J5sHH -- For example, this girl appears in almost all the missingdcgirls posts I've seen. She was reported missing on 3/22 but returned home on 3/24. https://t.co/6qZ3l6bOHr -- She's also 28 years old. -- Anyhoo the two groups are merging. The Pizzagate hoax + the MissingDCGirls faux epidemic = pedogate."