Oprah Winfrey has been the butt of very awful trolling on Twitter.
The talk show icon was forced to issue a statement on allegations that she was placed under arrest and charged with sex trafficking.
Oprah responds: Sex trafficking allegations are fake news
The origins of the fake news are hard to trace but allegations of this nature need no credibility to spread like wildfire on social media.
This is especially true if the subject is viewed by some as a rape apologist.
Alas, the rumour that Oprah was arrested for sex trafficking garnered enough steam to get the billionaire’s attention.
She took to Twitter to issue a statement, debunking the claims as fake news.
“[I’m] being trolled for some awful FAKE thing. It’s NOT TRUE. Haven’t been raided, or arrested. Just sanitizing and self-distancing with the rest of the world. Stay safe everybody,” she wrote.
Oprah’s friends who have been convicted of sex crimes
The motivation behind spreading this misinformation is not known but one could easily speculate that it may have been a way of forcing the 66-year-old to address sex trafficking after her friend Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years for sex crimes.
Moreover, in December 2019, Brazilian purported medium João Teixeira de Faria, or John of God, was sentenced to 19 years following a deluge of sex abuse allegations.
De Faria is a known ally of Oprah. Yet the media mogul has yet to address her affiliation to these men or, better yet, feature their indiscretions on her network.
Oprah has been heavily criticised for targeting black leaders and turning a blind eye on those in her inner circle accused of the same crimes.
Oprah has yet to issue a public apology to the Jackson family for leading from the frontlines in the controversial and very salacious Surviving Neverland documentary.
It is believed that her network is also in the works of releasing a similar documentary centred around Russell Simmons’ sex abuse allegations.
No further information on the above has been furnished as yet. Currently, Oprah is in self-isolation after cancelling her Oprah’s 2020 Vision Tour due to the coronavirus outbreak.