An executive with a Chattanooga-based software company has been fired after he allegedly posted a racist meme of Barack Obama that went viral on social media over the weekend.
The shocking effigy depicts the former president with a noose around his neck and the hashtag “#PayPerView” in bold type above him.
Screenshots of the graphic meme were shared by dozens of outraged social media users who identified Gary Casper, the vice president for information technology at Transcard, as the person who posted it, The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.
*WARNING, GRAPHIC CONTENT:
Those re-posts are still circulating online, right alongside Casper’s name, photo and biographical details from Facebook, including the phone number and address of his employer, which users encouraged others to call.
Casper’s Facebook page was abruptly deleted before the Times Free Press could confirm the origin of the post, but by Sunday afternoon the company announced that Casper had been terminated for violating company policy on making political statements on social media.
“As soon as Transcard realized that an employee was utilizing social media to engage in political speech, it took immediate action to terminate its relationship with such person,” Transcard President Chris Fuller wrote in an email to the newspaper.
The same day, Transcard wrote on its Facebook page that “views reflected in posts made by individuals do not reflect the views or values of Transcard.”
The Times Free Press reported that several social media accounts linked to the company have also been recently deleted. Among them are the Twitter pages of Transcard’s CEO and president, along with the company’s main Twitter account.
There was no indication that law enforcement was looking into the Facebook post as a credible threat against the former president, which would be a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
In January, a Republican official based in Colorado was fired from his job after posting a doctored photo showing President Donald Trump putting a noose around Obama’s neck.
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