How influencers flocked to Springfield chasing debunked rumors and attention

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — In a viral video that first appeared on Sept. 10, YouTube content creator Tyler Oliveira interviewed a Springfield, Ohio, resident who claimed he saw Haitian immigrants carrying away "over a hundred cats" in a white van.

"I watched them get pulled over with the cats and admit to the police that they was eating them," the unnamed man said.

The Springfield police said they have no records to substantiate that claim, which Oliveira does not mention. The video has garnered more than 4.5 million views on YouTube.

Social media influencers and content creators with right-leaning followings have descended on Springfield since Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance and former president Donald Trump amplified baseless claims that Haitian immigrants there are eating pets. As they pursue clicks, their sensationalized videos and posts are helping spread the false and racist rumors.

After media and city officials debunked the pet-eating claims, conservative activist Christopher Rufo offered a $5,000 bounty for evidence that Haitian immigrants were eating cats in Springfield. His post on X announcing the bounty got 4.5 million views.

What Rufo came up with a few days later was a single grainy video from 2023 that claimed to show a cat on a grill that was filmed in Dayton, about 30 miles away. Officials in Dayton said the allegations were "irresponsible" and that they had found no evidence to support the claims.

At the same time, the flimsy threads sustaining the rumors on social media have unraveled. A widely shared Facebook post that claimed Haitian immigrants in Springfield were seen carving up a cat turned out to be fourth-hand gossip, according to reporting by NewsGuard. The person who made the post