Rape in Palermo, insults to a friend of the suspects: “I am not like them”

Last Updated: August 28, 2023

“I am making this video to show my face. You have insulted me and my girlfriend, but we have nothing to do with what happened,” begins a friend of some of the suspects in the rape of a nineteen-year-old in Palermo through a TikTok video. After the arrests of the gang, both he and his girlfriend reportedly came under attack on social media simply because they knew the suspects or lived in the same neighborhood. “I am as outraged as you are,” he says during the video, “so stop insulting us. I had to disable the comments not because I have something to hide, but because you wrote really horrible things. I will reactivate them after this video, hoping to receive positive messages this time.” The young man defends himself against the wave of hatred that has flooded social media in recent days and claims to have also been affected: “I want to make it clear that I am not that kind of person, I am not like them. Anyone could have known these guys, we had no idea what they were doing. If we had known, me and my friends would not have associated with them. Just because an old friend of mine did something like this, it doesn’t mean we are all the same. We are not all equal on this earth. You are sending me a lot of insults even though I haven’t done anything.” Then the hope of no longer having to read mean comments on his profile: “Please stop writing to me or my girlfriend in that way. You have said really hurtful things. You need to understand the diversity of people, we are all under the same sky, but we are not all equal, I repeat.” This incident is part of the uncontrolled chaos on social media sparked by the crime. On Telegram, there are still active groups where thousands of members are waiting for the video of the violence, despite the Privacy Guarantor’s warning about the legal consequences of sharing the footage. On TikTok, fake profiles of the suspects continue to fuel the hate machine.