U of T investigating reports of booby-trapped white nationalist posters

It’s common belief that anything that’s posted on social media can spread like wildfire, but depending on who you ask, that can be a good or bad thing. An online discussion has been sparked, mainly on Facebook, warning that white supremacist posters posted around University of Toronto campuses are riddled with razor blades.

CityNews viewers asked our newsroom to look into these posts, but so far, these claims are unconfirmed by both university officials and Toronto Police.

Social media posts claim people have been injured from trying to take the posters down.

“We recently learned that there are razor blades hidden behind the white supremacist posters currently on campus. Please be extremely careful,” read a post on the University of Toronto’s Student Union. “We’ve contacted the university administration and will provide updates as they become available.”

The University of Toronto Graduate Students’ Union says they were told the posters are across the St.George campus “with harmful remarks” on them.

“Some folks who have tried taking them down have been cut by razor blades hidden behind the posters,” it read.

A spokesperson from the University of Toronto tells CityNews they are aware of these posts, and were alerted by community groups.

“At this time we can’t confirm reports of razor blades attached to the posters,” said Althea Blackburn-Evans, Director of Media Relations at the school. “Campus Police are investigating but have not yet located any posters with razor blades attached.”

The school adds they have also notified Toronto Police, and contacted the city of Toronto to “alert them to the possibility that these posters are on city property around the University.”

Toronto Police tell CityNews it’s difficult to investigate something when the only information available are online posts that go viral.

“The concerns are what we see on social media, but we have to be careful that what we see and read on social media isn’t always accurate,” said police spokesperson Caroline De Kloet.

“When people retweet or re-post certain things, it goes viral. This is one of those examples, where there is no validity to the information that we read and see on social media because it’s not necessarily from a credible source.”

Police are encouraging any victims to come forward.