What was claimed
Jodie Foster said that attacking the rich was “self-defense”.
Our verdict
Incorrect. There is no evidence that Ms Foster has ever said this.
No evidence Jodie Foster said that attacking the rich was ‘self-defence’
A widely shared Facebook post claims that the actor Jodie Foster justified attacks on rich people, calling it an act of “self-defense”.
The post attributes a quote to Ms Foster, which reads in full: “Attacking the rich is not envy, it is self-defense. The hoarding of wealth is the cause of poverty. The rich aren’t just indifferent to poverty; they create it & maintain it.”
But there is no evidence that Ms Foster has ever said this.
The fact checkers Snopes and Check Your Fact have also failed to trace this comment to Ms Foster in the past.
The true origin of the comment is uncertain. The earliest use that we can find was in 2014, when a Twitter account shared it, without attribution. The owner of the account has claimed that they were the quote’s original author.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because there is no evidence that Jodie Foster ever said this.