LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Jennifer Aniston recently came under fire after "liking" an alleged controversial post by Jamie Foxx on Instagram. On Friday, August 4, Foxx took to his Instagram story as well as his news feed to share a cryptic message to call out his fake friends, writing, "They killed this dude name Jesus… what do you think they’ll do to you?" #fakefriends #fakelove."
Foxx also posted a story from another user who shared his original post and wrote, "Judas showed his self!!! [Jamie Foxx] know them for what they are." As pointed out by The Times of Israel, while the actor shared the now-deleted post to call out fake friends, the message seemingly appeared "to echo antisemitic tropes" and received backlash from several social media users.
The Times of Israel also mentioned that the age-old antisemitic belief about Jews being collectively responsible for the killing of Jesus has long been a source of antisemitism. While it is not known which friends Foxx referred to in his post, the message prompted some social media users to think that Foxx's post was allegedly antisemitic in nature. Meanwhile, Anniston also landed in hot waters after liking the post. Foxx was quick to delete the post after the issue.
Did Jennifer Aniston like Jamie Foxx's post?
While Aniston initially liked Foxx's post, the 'Friends' star possibly learnt about the controversy online and immediately clarified that she did not like the post "on purpose or by accident" and that she "does not support any form of antisemitism" or did not "tolerate hate of any kind." Aniston took to her Instagram story to share a screenshot of her like on Foxx's post alongside A Wider Frame headline related to the issue.
"This really makes me sick," the actress began. "I did not ‘like’ this post on purpose or by accident. And more importantly, I want to be clear to my friends and anyone hurt by this showing up in their fees – I do NOT support any form of antisemitism. I truly don’t tolerate HATE of any kind. Period," Aniston clarified. Foxx, who has been recovering after being hospitalized due to a medical emergency in April, is yet to address the situation at the time of writing.
'I'm embarrassed for her'
Despite Aniston's clarification, some social media users continued to call out the actress. "I’m embarrassed for her," one wrote. "How do you not do something on purpose or by accident? Or has to be one or the other, right?" one asked. "She could have unliked it ? If it wasn’t on purpose or accidentally I’m confused," another stated. "Maybe a Jennifer's impostor liked it," one mocking penned. "If it wasn’t posted as a “like” by accident or on purpose how was it posted?" a fifth user asked.
Meanwhile, some people came to the actress' defense and said that her like may be automated. "Let’s be honest here folks. Jenn’s social media team is using automation that likes anything certain accounts “post” here. That’s the case for most actors here, it is a list that is circulated, fed into a bot and the likes happen. As do automated responses based on keywords, etc etc etc etc," one explained. One simply wrote, "Automation prolly," while another said, "Probably means she is using a bot for automation. Auto liking your followers is a feature."
