What do censorship and Myrtle Beach’s messiest love triangle have in common? Facebook
The private lives of three Myrtle Beach retirees unfolded in the most unlikely of places, one online post at a time.
Brenda, Rita and John — now household names for anyone who frequents local social media spheres.
There were expletive-laden diatribes, emotional soliloquies and spiteful posts featuring photos of a once-happy relationship. With each keystroke, whether intended or not, their messy love triangle became a saga for mass consumption. And so, when a 16-year friendship was torn apart and a break-up went viral, the world watched on Facebook.
The real-time romance (and subsequent fallout) captivated locals and out-of-towners, as commentary about this real-life soap opera ricocheted from one Facebook group to another. It inspired TikTok videos and became a drive-time topic on at least one local radio show.
But this messy love story, and the community’s obsession with each new twist, has also triggered larger conversations about censorship and freedom in the Grand Strand’s local Facebook groups. It has raised questions about who gets to control community discussions in these online public forums, which have become more powerful and lasting than any public comment period at a city council meeting.
And when some on Facebook thought it was time to turn a page on the tale of Brenda, Rita and John, by deleting posts about the love triangle, it only proved to be a temporary moratorium.
It instead sparked the creation of yet another Facebook group, called “Locals of Myrtle Beach-NO RULES.”
As Ghandi once said, “Love is the strongest force the world possesses.” And, so far, this love story has proved so powerful that nothing can keep a lid on it.
Who are Brenda, Rita and John?
Despite the very public documentation of this romance, nearly all of the details of what happened have come from one person, Brenda Lewis. Meanwhile, both Rita and John have not responded to requests for comment, nor doest it appear that they have rebutted or acknowledged any of the accusations against them swirling around Facebook.
Here are the most important details, without getting in too deep:
For nearly 16 years, according to Brenda, she and Rita were friends and neighbors. They were so close, in fact, that after Rita had a few surgeries, Brenda said she helped nurse her friend back to health.
For much of the last year, Brenda and John have been a couple. The pair, according to Brenda, even went to look at engagement rings. They were as close as could be — that is, until Brenda went out of town for a week.
And that’s where the drama began to unfold online.
“This is a picture of the biggest phoney friend in Myrtle Beach. I go out of town for one week and she’s decided to date the man I have been seeing for almost one year. She supposedly was my friend but I guess desperate old Rita will stab you in the back if it benefits her,” Brenda wrote in a Nov. 11 post in the “Locals-Myrtle Beach, SC” Facebook group, where she included a photo of Rita.
Both of them had blindsided her, Brenda said. But rather than keeping her emotional turmoil quiet, Brenda went public.
Through a series of posts, some of which have since been deleted, Brenda has undertaken a weeks-long Facebook campaign detailing the apparent betrayal of her close friend and her boyfriend, in almost-excruciating detail at times.
She’s posted details of the relationship saga in local groups at least seven times since Nov. 11, often including photos of Rita or John. Then there are posts that include evidence, such as a photo of kitchen towels she made, one of which was allegedly used to clean up wine from an evening Rita and John spent together.
“Rita and ‘dirty’ John checking out home security systems at Best Buy,” Brenda posted, with a photo, in the “Myrtle Beach Events” group, a forum normally dedicated to, well, local events.
In subsequent posts, Brenda seemed to suggest that she and John have continued to spend time with one another, even after the Rita drama began. In a post dated Nov. 14 in “Locals-Myrtle Beach, SC,” she wrote, “John enjoyed another free meal courtesy of me” and attached a photo of him smiling at a restaurant. However, after publication, she told The Sun News that all of the photos were from before the break-up with John.
“I wouldn’t give that scumbag another chance to hurt me,” she said in a Facebook message.
When reached on Nov. 18 with a request for more details on what happened between her, Rita and John, Brenda told a reporter that the situation was “not news worthy really.”
Later, though, she said that some people online have added extraneous details to her original love triangle story.
“People hate phoney lying cheaters,” she said in a follow-up message.
In so many ways, the private lives of three people became public gossip. When Brenda wasn’t posting about her own drama, other Facebook group members jumped in with questions, commentary and memes — so many memes. What started out in at least two private Facebook groups soon spread into at least two public groups and eventually spawned an entirely new group where speculation about Brenda, Rita and John flourished: “Locals of Myrtle Beach-NO RULES.”
Easily hundreds, if not thousands, of people from near and far have followed the love triangle through the Facebook groups. And many are hoping for a sit-down “tell-all” featuring the three lovebirds themselves.
Who controls these groups? And who decides the rules?
Myrtle Beach has dozens of community Facebook groups, all serving slightly different purposes.
“Myrtle Vegas,” with 21,000 members, is often a home for posts about events around town and discussions about places to go out. Then there’s “Myrtle Beach Tourism,” 15,400 members strong, home to both locals and visitors alike sharing tips on how best to spend time in the Grand Strand, and “Locals-Myrtle Beach, SC,” whose name is pretty self-explanatory yet is populated with hundreds of people who are not, in fact, locals.
Many of these groups have overlapping populations, and many of them are private, though not securely gate-kept. Thousands of people populate each one. “Myrtle Beach Tourism” is one of the “private” groups, despite, well, its inherent “public”-sounding purpose. Most of the time, all it takes is filling out a simple form to get accepted into a group. Some of them, even ones that don’t have an explicit tourism focus, are populated or even moderated by people who don’t live in the region.
Most of the time, thousands of posts find their way into these groups each month without a problem, sparking conversations about new restaurants, best times of the year to visit or which part of the beach is best for surfing. However, not all of the groups are welcoming to any kind of discussion.
On one “Locals-Myrtle Beach, SC” post that garnered more than 600 comments, at least one person expressed irritation that the Brenda-Rita-John drama had taken over the group.
“I dong (sic) know who the moderator of this group is but they need to stop all this BS about John and Brenda and Rita etc...” they wrote. “This page was supposed to be for info on Myrtle Beach not Peyton Place!”
In at least three prominent groups that together have nearly 60,000 members — “Myrtle Beach Living,” “Myrtle Beach Eats” and “North Myrtle Beach” (the one featuring black heart and palm tree emojis at the beginning and end of the name) — every post requires an administrator’s approval before the post goes live.
But many of the groups are populated, and even run, by the same people. Tod Whitby, an administrator of “Myrtle Vegas,” is also an admin of “THE BEACH.”
“This is absolutely not something we have ever posted on here, but it’s going viral and it’s all in fun,” Whitby wrote in a post that included three TikToks recapping the Brenda-Rita-John story. “The comments and the fact that keeps going are hysterical. It’s actually going to get MB some free press, and lord knows the world could use some tung (sic) in cheek news these days!”
Likewise, Martina Corley is involved in running “Myrtle Beach...Local and Loving It!,” “Myrtle Beach History” and “THE BEACH.”
Depending on how these Facebook groups are set up, gatekeepers like Corley and Whitby could have the power to delete posts after the fact or kick people out of the groups altogether. Who runs some groups isn’t always clear. Some of the admins don’t even live locally or aren’t even people at all. Some groups have Facebook Pages as admins — one co-runner of a local group is “For The Love of Canada Geese” — rather than real humans.
Everyone’s favorite love triangle isn’t the only subject that sometimes draws the censorship of group admins.
The power to approve and disapprove social media posts isn’t always appreciated. For a group like “Myrtle Beach Eats,” for instance, the prior approval standard clearly serves as a way to ensure that all posts stick to the purpose of the community — talking about local food. In other groups with broader standards, some members see moderation as a form of censorship on a social media platform that has long been accused of stifling voices of certain political groups and creating echo chambers for others.
Censorship concerns and false information
An admin of “Locals of Myrtle Beach-NO RULES,” Casey Dougherty, said her group was created in direct response to some of Brenda’s posts about her relationship being deleted from “Locals-Myrtle Beach, SC.” The new group has only been around for a few weeks.
Who deleted the posts exactly is unclear, whether it was Brenda herself or admins of “Locals-Myrtle Beach, SC.”
Possible censorship isn’t the only problem Brenda is facing. There are also people so obsessed with the tale that they have begun making up false information to add to the drama.
This week, Brenda said she contacted a woman who had been speaking out against her online.
“I asked her who she was?” Brenda said via Facebook Messenger. “She said she was John Langley’s daughter. Sooo I asked her what was John’s sister’s name, her aunt, and she couldn’t say!!! Another phoney, fake person.
“She was all about defending John. She doesn’t even know him. A simpleton who was playing the Devils advocate I guess. It’s time for part 2,” Brenda said. “I guess I just realized she must be very bored in her own life so she fabricated some BS for fun. Lol.”
Asked if she was angry about people fabricating information related to her life, Brenda demurred.
“Well, I was the one who initiated the conversation,” she said.
Brenda then said she was ”stupid” reaching out to that person and admitted she didn’t realize what could happen by airing her drama online. She claimed she didn’t know people would, as she put it, “invent false realities!” on the internet.
Nevertheless, her reality lives on online.
This story was originally published December 1, 2021 at 11:30 AM.
