Pizzagate and how Conspiracies Spread

Conspiracies have been around for a long time and they will only continue to be created and spread within the present ecosystem of the Internet. They can range from the absurd and easily disprovable (modern Flat Earth Theories, for instance) to the very real and pertinent (Watergate, for instance). Easily disprovable conspiracy theories rarely reach the critical mass of something like Watergate, but that isn't true 100% of the time.

Pizzagate is a conspiracy theory that alleges that the Democratic Party was using the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria (in Washington DC) as a front for a widespread child sex trafficking ring with Hillary Clinton right at the center. This theory blew up right near the end of a contentious 2016 election cycle where one of the most hot button issues was the idea of "fake news."

Photo via Vox

Using articles from The Rolling Stone and Vox, I want to look not at the conspiracy theory itself, but how it spread and led to one man entering the pizzeria armed with an assault rifle. 

The original Pizzagate Facebook post was made on October 29th, 2016 by a user named Carmen Katz. The post alleged that Hillary Clinton, along with Bill Clinton and Anthony Weiner (an actual registered sex offender), were part of "an international child enslavement and sex ring." The Rolling Stone found out that Katz wasn't a real person and was actually Cynthia Campbell, a lawyer from a smaller city in Missouri.

Of course, Campbell didn't put the story of Pizzagate together entirely herself. Seeds of the conspiracy theory (and many other conspiracies) were found on sites like 4Chan and Thee RANT (an anonymous message board for cops). These conspiracy theory seeds were likely planted by people looking to purposely misinform people and brew dissent.

The post on Thee RANT was reposted by a Twitter account known as Eagle Wings, which has characteristics matching that of a bot account and a fairly large following (120k). And Carmen Katz's Facebook post was reposted on Twitter by an account called @DavidGoldbergNY. This account had similar bot-like characteristics with the Eagle Wings account.

Of course, these bots (and other members of their bot networks) would not be enough to spread the conspiracy by themselves. They would need the aid of prominent political or media figures to truly elevate the conspiracy's popularity. And they would get just that when people like Donald Trump Jr and Roger Stone retweeted Pizzagate conspiracy tweets. Furthermore, at least 66 Trump campaign figures also interacted with accounts pushing Pizzagate on Twitter. 

People tweeting about the conspiracy would not only interact with these tweets from bots, but they would also frequently post news from deliberate fake news sites that were run by teens from Macedonia looking for a quick buck. 

Pizzagate really took off when Douglas Hagmann appeared on the popular right-wing conspiracy theory show, InfoWars. This took the theory from social media to the right wing news machine and, after Erik Prince (Betsy DeVos' brother) "confirmed" the conspiracy in a Breitbart interview, the story began to cycle throughout popular right wing news platforms.

Following the election, the conspiracy only grew in popularity, hitting as many as 145,000 tweets in a day. Granted, many of those were tweets were likely from bot accounts, but many were not. Some were ordinary people caught up in a conspiracy that would be something truly heinous were it real. Others were deliberately spreading it to sow dissent in America. And others wholeheartedly believe it and, maybe still do. 

It's important for journalists to understand how conspiracies like Pizzagate blow up and they should strive to present factual information to counteract them.