In March, rumours that cannibalism is common in Haiti were widely shared on social media. These rumours were largely based on three videos. But two of them were filmed in different countries, and even though the third one was filmed in Haiti, it is from 2021 and, thus, isn’t proof of anything recent.
These cannibalism rumours were spread by right-wing social media accounts based in the US, with anti-immigration messages. It appears to be related to the US presidential campaign, in which fake news about immigration is common. Elon Musk, among others, contributed to these rumours going viral.
These rumours have also been shared by accounts that seem to be run by people from the Dominican Republic, where there is “systemic racism” towards people of Haitian background, according to Amnesty International.
However, as there is at least one video that seems to show a case of cannibalism in Haiti, back in 2021, we wanted to see if we could find any other proof of this. We were able to identify and verify only two other videos that seem to show similar cases, in 2019 and 2024: it seems like this practice remains extremely rare.
You can read our full investigation about this topic here:
Read moreInvestigation: Are there really rising cases of cannibalism in Haiti or is it fake news?
