Australia Day lawyer apologises after trolls abuse her

A divorce lawyer who was harassed by online trolls after promoting an Australia Day prawn cocktail special has apologized, telling her viewers that “her words were misinterpreted”.

Fidan Shevket shared a video of a paid restaurant review on Wednesday announcing his free prawn cocktail offer as part of the restaurant’s ‘Australia Day promotion’ to his 131,000 TikTok followers.

However, the video turned out to be the trigger for a brutal hate campaign in which she was branded a racist and personally attacked, and her law firm was the target of hateful one-star reviews.

The mother-of-two shared an apology on Friday, saying the incident had been taken out of context.

“People have said that they were really offended by it and that it was racist, and (I’m a) white supremacist, and entitled, and deaf. I have many, many criticisms.

“I refer to 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 that viewers responded to the original video by “taking it out of context” and assumed what his “thoughts and feelings” were that day.

“The criticism that I have (of the video), I think it has been misinterpreted,” he said.

“I did not make any political statement. I didn’t talk about what the day means to our First Nations people. I didn’t talk about (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 the things,’ he said.

Ms Shevket adds that the criticism may have been triggered by her “frivolous nature”.

I ‘celebrate’ the day with my family because it’s a day off, and I like holidays.

‘I compared (Australia Day) to other holidays, I don’t believe in what they represent, but I celebrate them anyway.

“I got a lot of hate for my comments and I really didn’t understand why.”

Ms Shevket then goes on to say that she posted another video, unboxing hair clips, as she thought she was back to “business as usual”.

Referencing an earlier, now-deleted video in which she told supporters “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 hair clips that Ms. Shevket was promoting also received a lot of hate and asked her to take down the video.

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 was very flippant in tone and was not intended to comment on the controversy.

I didn’t want to make any kind of political statement. I certainly did not intend to offend any of my Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people or my supporters.

“I understand that I offended people, and I never meant to,” he added, “so, I just want to say I’m sorry if I offended you and I’ll try to do better with my content.”

Since then, the two videos explaining the controversy have been reduced to backlash.

Ms. Shevket’s law firm, Fox and Staniland, came under fire in the days after the original video was uploaded with an influx of one-star reviews on Google.

‘The firm should not be associated with racists and bigots. It will always reflect negatively on the company,” read one.

“I would not recommend going to this law firm and seeing an uneducated white supremacist lawyer thriving on his own privilege while working on Indian land,” added another.

‘Fidan celebrates genocide… how can you trust someone like that? Nasty!’ wrote one, while another added: ‘Fidan is ignorant and arrogant. Do better.’

Fat ignorant COWWWWWW!!!! Get your ass back on Tiktok and SORRY! You look like s**t’, a troll told him.

The lawyer told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday that she is not racist and has been misconstrued.

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 that all she did was promote a free prawn cocktail as part of a paid collaboration on January 26.

“I don’t celebrate what the day means (I don’t wave an Australian flag in the harbor or condone the killing 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, ignorant and disrespectful.

I didn’t mean to offend anyone or insult anyone. ‘