Missing DC Teens

A couple weeks ago, a post on Twitter that claimed that 14 black went missing in Washington D.C. in the span of 24 hours went completely viral.

As of today the original post has been taken down, but people are outraged at the fact that these missing girls were not getting any coverage on major new outlets.

With the help of the thousands of likes and retweets, authorities were able to locate some of the girls. However the post isn’t entirely true.

The tweet that has gotten over 47K retweets has been spreading false information and even gotten the attention of celebrities. Despite popular belief, 14 girls did not go missing in 24 hours.

The D.C. police actually just started posting all of the missing persons case that are still open on their twitter account, and that’s where people got confused. They assumed that since the police department posted that many girls cases in one day, that was how many went missing that during that 24 time period.

Fake/distorted news has become popular recently on social social. Before liking and reposting something on social with such big claims, people should research it first to make sure it’s all the way true.

This controversy has sparked up feelings about minorities getting proper news coverage. This issue gained attention because it was so popular on social media and not on actual news channels. News channels did not start talking about these missing black girls until they saw how angry people got and the popularity from it. But why is it that when white girls go missing, amber alerts are being sent out immediately and their story blows up worldwide?

Missing white girls become household names, for example Elizabeth Smart. Can you think the name of any missing person case who is a minority?  The only time black girls or hispanics are even really mentioned on the news is when they commit a crime. Police just assume minorities missing cases are just runaways.

There is a bigger issue from all of this. Even though the original post was inaccurate, it allowed for these missing minorities cases to get much needed attention from the police and the public.