This weekend, a man set fire to a woman inside a subway car in Brooklyn.
The suspect was arrested hours later in Manhattan, but the woman, who was sleeping in the subway train at the time of the attack, has yet to be formally identified.
Given the suspect’s status as an illegal immigrant, people across social media rushed to post a fake image of a white woman to gin up sympathy and push anti-immigrant sentiments.
In the process, they’re getting played by cryptocurrency hucksters.
“Say her name! Amelia Carter,” one post on X reads. “The girl who was burned to death by an illegal on NYC subway. RIP sweet girl. Justice will be done!”
The Remembrance Project, a non-profit that tries to draw attention to crimes committed by immigrants, also jumped on the image.
In a post on Facebook, the organization wrote, “Another innocent Citizen killed by an illegal! When will our nation have enough? What is the # of killings we're "ok" with before DEMANDING/taking action to save lives! So terribly horrific. Words cannot express our sadness. Pray 4 this young lady & her family.”
It’s unclear who first shared the picture, but shortly after details of the crime were reported, the X account @minnie1254 shared the image with a purported message from the victim’s family.
The message read, “The family of 29-year-old Amelia Carter has announced her tragic passing after she was fatally set on fire aboard an F Train in Coney Island. In an emotional statement, her grieving family expressed their heartbreak and called for justice. ‘We are devastated and heartbroken beyond words. Amelia was a beautiful soul who brought light into the lives of everyone who knew her. She didn't deserve this senseless, cruel act," the alleged family said.
The statement goes on to say, “The family urged the public to remember Amelia and keep her name alive as they push for accountability. ‘Say her name: Amelia Carter. She deserved so much more.’”
Shortly after this post, the token ($)Amelia (Justice for Amelia) was launched, attempting to profit from the fabricated image and message.
As the name and image quickly spread, accounts helped inflate the value of the new cryptocurrency by drawing attention to the name and the coin.
However, numerous posts have flagged the image as likely an AI fake.
A reverse image search reveals no instances of the image online, aside from social media posts about the woman’s supposed death. Others who have run the image through AI detectors also found faults.
Despite no confirmation, numerous users on X demanded people “say her name,” believing the media were trying to censor the victim’s identity.
One post read, “SAY HER NAME - Amelia Carter 29 years old. Burned alive n subway by an illegal alien … Media refuses to post her name/face and tried to smear her by saying she was drunk or homeless and was seated by empty alcohol bottles. The subway is aways filthy.”.
Another post compared Amelia Carter to Kitty Genovese, whose attack is often used as an example of bystander effect, where strangers fail to intervene when crimes are being committed.
“Amelia Carter was a modern-day Kitty Genovese. People stood by and let her be murdered. Made no effort to help....in both cases...nobody did jack-shit EXCEPT filming with their damn phones!”.
Since the circulation of the AI-generated image, an image of an actual Amelia Carter has gained traction.
It features a University of Pennsylvania student, who, in response to the case of mistaken identity, acknowledged the situation.
In a post on X, she wrote, “I am alive and well and condemn white supremacy in all its forms - fuck off fear mongering maga creeps.”
But images of the real Amelia Carter have now been mistakenly used to report the crime, with social media accounts posting her image alongside the AI image.
And despite the warnings that the name is fake, it still continues to circulate.
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