JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville woman said she’s facing threats and harassment after being wrongly identified as the person in a viral video showing a woman shouting racial slurs in Fort Myers.
Lisa Hanson discovered her social media accounts flooded with hostile messages and threats after people online mistakenly connected her to the video of a different woman making racist remarks in a parking lot confrontation.
“People started bombarding my Facebook, and I didn’t know about it until Sunday afternoon,” Hanson said. The harassment extended beyond social media, reaching her workplace, church, and feed store.
Her daughter, Lexie Lewis, first noticed the deluge of accusations. “I went on her Facebook and saw just a flood of comments, calling her terrible names and saying that she was this person in a video,” Lewis said.
The impact on Hanson’s business has been immediate. “I heard from one of my employees that we had a lot of people come in here on Saturday that they’ve never been in here before, and asking them, ‘What is your name?’ behind the register,” Hanson said. “They were a little concerned, and I was concerned about that.”
Maria Mejia, who originally posted the video of the Fort Myers incident, said she was unaware of the misidentification until contacted by News4JAX. She expressed remorse about the unintended consequences.
“I need to say I’m sorry to her,” Mejia said. “This is not my point; my point is that we are all humans, and we are love, and love is greater than hate. So even if she was the person and she’s not the person, I don’t want anything to happen to anybody.”
Mejia, reflecting on the incident’s broader implications, emphasized the importance of understanding and compassion. “What I want is everybody to love each other and to understand that even if you are different in the outside, we are all the same,” she said.
News4JAX reached out to the social media influencer who shared the video and the name, but did not receive an immediate response.