Stop me if you heard this one before, someone hears a rumor, does not confirm its origins before hopping on social media, and blasting a local business or resident in an attempt to "shame" said business or person for these alleged actions or event. This is what one local business owner is currently facing.
A Facebook member, "Lisa" took to the social media platform to tell the community she was alerted to a situation where a uniformed police officer allegedly entered Whitemarsh Beverage and was refused service by the staff as they used profanity towards the officer. Lisa immediately called for the community to boycott the local business in support of our local police department. There was one problem with Lisa's post, the incident never happened!
The post started to circulate and eventually made its way back to Whitemarsh Beverage Owner Henderson Cho. Cho released the following statement on his Facebook page calling for an end to the rumors.
In her defense, Lisa, upon learning the truth, immediately deleted the original post and issued an apology to Mr. Cho.
Luckily Cho has accepted the apology and we are moving past this incident
We can all learn from this incident and it reminds me of valuable words I heard at my daughter's promotion ceremony at Colonial Elementary School some years back when the Assistant Principal gave the advice regarding social media, "pause before you post!". A lesson that can be embraced by both young and old.
We reached out to Cho and Lisa for further comment but they have not responded to our request at this time. We will update this article if we hear from them.
Join the conversation here.
All screenshots of Facebook posts shared in this article were posted as public posts or in Facebook groups.
