A divorce lawyer who was hounded by trolls online after promoting an Australia Day prawn cocktail special has apologised, telling her viewers her ‘words were misconstrued’.
Fidan Shevket shared a video of a paid restaurant review on Wednesday and announced its free prawn cocktail deal as a part of the restaurant’s ‘Australia Day promotion’ to her 131,000 TikTok followers.
However, the video proved to be the trigger for a brutal hate campaign where she was branded a racist and personally attacked, and her law firm was targeted with hateful one-star reviews.
The mum-of-two shared an apology on Friday and said the incident had been taken out of context.
Fidan Shevket (pictured), or Fidan_Tok to her followers, received heavy backlash after promoting an Australia Day special at a local restaurant
‘People have said they were really offended by it and that it was racist, and (I am a) white supremacist, and entitled, and tone-deaf – I’ve got lots and lots of criticisms.
‘I reference Australia Day and why I called it Australia Day. That’s the day on the calendar so that’s the day I called it.’
The lawyer then explains viewers had responded to the original video by ‘taking it out of context’, and assumed what her ‘thoughts and feelings’ were on the day.
‘The criticism that I’ve got (from the video), it think it’s just been misunderstood,’ she said.
‘I did not make any political statement. I did not talk about what the day means for our First Nations people. I didn’t talk about it (being) a day of mourning, it’s a day of loss, loss of rights, loss of freedom, loss of family… I didn’t talk about any of things’, she said.
Ms Shevket adds the criticism may have been set off by her ‘flippant nature’.
‘I ‘celebrate’ the day with my family because it’s a day off, and I like public holidays.
‘I compared (Australia Day) to other public holidays, I don’t believe in what they stand for but I celebrate them anyway.
‘I got a lot of hate from my comments and I didn’t really understand why.’
Ms Shevket (pictured with the prawn cocktail special) said she believes she has been misunderstood
Ms Shevket then goes on to say she posted another video, unboxing hair clips, as she thought it was back to ‘business as usual’.
Referencing a previous now-deleted video, in which she told followers ‘they’re coming for me with pitchforks’, Ms Shevket said people had interpreted that as her ‘doubling down’ on her position.
The woman who had made the hairclips that Ms Shevket was promoting also received a lot of hate, and asked her to take the video down.
‘Everyone wants to talk about the controversy. I don’t really want to address it because to me, my words were misconstrued,’ she said.
‘It’s my own fault – it’s my own video, it’s my own content – I accept that the video had a very flippant tone and I wasn’t meaning to comment on the controversy.
‘I wasn’t meaning to say any sort of political statement. I certainly wasn’t meaning to offend any of my Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community or my followers.
‘I understand I offended people, and it was never my intention’, she added, ‘so, I just want to say I’m sorry if I offended you and I will try and do better with my content.’
Her Fox and Staniland law firm was targeted with an influx of one star reviews on Google (pictured)
The two videos explaining the controversy have since been taken down to the backlash.
Ms Shevket’s law firm Fox and Staniland was targeted in the days following the upload of the original video with an influx of one star reviews on Google.
‘The firm should not associate itself with racists and bigots. It will always reflect badly on the firm,’ one read.
‘Would not recommend going to this law firm and seeing an uneducated white supremacist lawyer who thrives off of her own privilege while working on indigenous land,’ another added.
‘Fidan celebrates genocide… how can you trust someone like that. Disgusting!’ wrote one, while another added: ‘Fidan is ignorant and arrogant. Do better.’
‘You fat ignorant COWWWWWW!!!! Get your ass back on Tiktok and APOLOGISE! You w** looking s**t,’ one troll told her.
The mother of two said she wasn’t meaning to offend any of the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community or her followers
The lawyer told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday she is not a racist and has been misunderstood.
‘My casual comments have been taken out of context.
‘I have definitely been misquoted and misunderstood. I didn’t even say Happy Australia Day!’
Ms Shevket told Daily Mail Australia all she did was promote a free prawn cocktail as a part of a paid collaboration on January 26.
‘I do not celebrate what the day means (I don’t wave an Aussie flag at the harbour or condone the slaughter of Aboriginal people) but January 26 is a public holiday. Everyone should celebrate, or NOT celebrate, the day in their own way.
‘Apparently that is racist and ignorant and disrespectful.
‘I didn’t mean to offend anyone or insult anyone. ‘
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk