A Novara Media senior editor has been the subject of massive online abuse after uploading a seemingly harmless photo, just after a terror attack took place in the UK city of Reading, following a Black Lives Matter demonstration.
Journalist Ash Sarkar has received death threats online after uploading a selfie to social media on Saturday as she enjoys an ice cream, interpreted by some as support for a terror attack in Reading that had taken place just moments prior.
The photo shows Sarker sitting in a park next to her bike, eating a lolly. It was captioned with 3 oranges, seemingly in reference to the colour of the snack.
The photo received an array of abuse by netizens. Numerous theories ranging from accusations that the oranges represented Libya, the number of victims of that day's attack, and even death motifs from cult movies.
In an interview with the Mirror, the 28-year old Novara Media editor said that the reception, in light of the attack on the same day, made her “really angry”.
She explained that her selfie was taken while out in East London's Springfield Park with her friends and boyfriend, thinking it would be a harmless summer picture.
She posted it when she got home, she explained. Saying that she was unaware of the news that had broken hours earlier of the stabbing deaths of 3 people in Reading's Forbury Gardens.
She suggested that the hateful reaction could be a response to former LBC host and columnist, Katie Hopkins,…
