BURST
The American children’s entertainer and YouTuber known as Ms. Rachel has issued an apology after admitting to accidentally liking an antisemitic comment on Instagram calling for the U.S. to be “free from the Jews.”
“So, I thought I deleted a comment and I accidentally hit ‘like and hide’,” she subsequently said in an Instagram video explaining her actions. “I would never agree with an antisemitic thing like the comment. We have Jewish family, a lot of my friends are Jewish,” she said. “I delete antisemitic comments.”
The social media star, whose real name is Rachel Griffin Accurso, issued the apology late Wednesday, reports the New York Post . The 43-year-old’s Instagram, msrachelforlittles , has 4.8 million followers. (Her YouTube channe l has 18.6 million followers.)
The incident was sparked when Acurso shared a statement from her notes app on her Instagram that read “Free Palestine, Free Sudan, Free Congo, Free Iran” with each country’s flag. Under the post, another user wrote: “Free America from the Jews.” The comment got four likes, including one from Ms. Rachel’s account.
A fan messaged her, she said, to point out what the fan was sure was an accident: “Hi rachel, just wanted to let you know there’s a comment under your latest post that says ‘free American from the Jews’ that says like by the author. I’m sure that’s an accident so wanted to let you know.”
She messaged back: “Deleted – how horrible – oh wait let me check – I did delete one like that. Ya I believe I deleted that earlier right when I saw it! I hate antisemitism,” Acurso messaged back.
However, the next day, the comment was still visible and continued to show as “liked by author,” reports the Daily Wire .
Acurso said she thought she had deleted the comment but accidentally hit like instead and so “the internet, I guess, has picked it up, believing that’s what happened … I feel like we can’t be human anymore online.”
She later insisted in an Instagram reel that she was “broken” over the incident. “And I’m so sorry for the confusion it caused. I’m so sorry if anyone thought that I would ever agree with something so horrible and antisemitic like that. I don’t.”
She went on to plead her age as a basis for the error: “I want to say that it’s OK to be human and it’s OK to make mistakes and I’m old, so I am not as good with touching things online, I guess. I have liked things by accident before.”
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