In the age of social media, many celebrities are known to express their personal opinions on a myriad of topics via digital spaces. This does, sometimes, lead to criticism from the public at large, and this was recently the case for Black Panther star Letitia Wright. The actress received backlash this past week after sharing a link to a video that appeared to express anti-vaccine views. Now, it appears that Wright has deleted her social media accounts following the controversy.
Letitia Wright’s Twitter and Instagram accounts no longer appear when users try to access them. The initial situation began on Friday when she took to Twitter to share the link to the 69-minute video, which came from the “On The Table” YouTube channel. Aside from the link, Wright’s original post included a prayer hands emoji. The post immediately caused fans to chime in, with Wright directly responding to a number of their messages.
Before deleting her social media accounts, Wright posted another message on Twitter in which she explained why she chose to post the video. She stated that she didn’t mean to hurt anyone, as her intention was to raise her concerns about what she could potentially be putting into her body.
In the actual video, the host gives his views on the potential COVID-19 vaccine, questioning its legitimacy in the process. The video also accused China of spreading the coronavirus, included transphobic remarks and appeared to be skeptical of climate change. As of this writing, the video has now been removed by YouTube for violating the website’s terms of service.
As mentioned, the video caught the attention of many people across the web, including Wright’s Avengers co-star Don Cheadle. He initially came to Wright’s defense but admitted that he hadn’t seen the video when he made his initial statement. After watching it, he later asserted in a tweet that he could not defend anyone who shared the sentiments, though he said he would not cancel Wright:
jesus... just scrolled through. hot garbage. every time i stopped and listened, he and everything he said sounded crazy and fkkkd up. i would never defend anybody posting this. but i still won't throw her away over it. the rest i'll take off twitter. had no idea.
As we continue through the global health crisis, it’s recently been reported that several COVID-19 vaccines are in the final stages of testing and could soon be distributed to the public. This has drawn mixed response from the public thus far. Many see this as a breakthrough and a key step in combating COVID-19, while others share Wright’s sentiments and are expressing concerns.
Neither Wright nor her reps have commented since she departed her social media channels, and it remains to be seen if she’ll be reactivating them in the near future. Keep it here at CinemaBlend for more updates and for more from the world of movies and TV.
