Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki said he regrets that e post, attached to his Twitter account, was inadvertently retweeted – making it appear as though he had shared the offensive tweet.
I had nothing to do with the offensive post. We unintentionally compounded the problem by RTing the original post unaware that an offensive screenshot was attached. It's disturbing how social media can be manipulated.
— Mayor Mike Purzycki (@MikePurzycki) March 18, 2019
“I am deeply offended that someone would intentionally try to connect me to this disturbing message,” said the Mayor. “I apologize to anyone who is upset thinking that this senseless post originated with me. I am concerned about how social media can be misused. When something like this happens, it is both dangerous and extremely disturbing to those who see these posts, and to those who are purportedly the authors of it.”
The Twitter post claimed the Irish immigrating to the U.S. were enslaved and has been used by white nationalist elements to claim all forms of slavery are alike.
Irish and other immigrants were sometimes classified as indentured servants, who had certain rights, unlike other slaves who could be bought and sold.
Purzycki said his office believes the retweet in question was a reply from a Twitter user who attached a screenshot of the original offensive post from “@LegendaryEnergy.” This reply to the original St. Patrick’s Day Parade tweet then tagged the Mayor and other public officials. The Mayor said the offensive post was removed, and as a precaution, his Twitter account password was reset and additional authentication controls were activated.
“We were obviously not vigilant in reviewing the material and that is our responsibility,” said Purzycki. “While it was an innocent mistake, it is a reminder that in the world of social media we must remain aware of those who would abuse the system,” said Purzycki.
