Is Katy Perry a robot controlled by the Illuminati? An “E.T,” if you will? Yeah, probably not. Over the last few days, TikTok has been fascinated with a clip of Katy Perry where one of her eyelids creepily closes as she attempts to pull it back into place with her …
Read More »A Target Sex-Trafficking Hoax Is Once Again Going Viral On TikTok
On August 28, TikToker @vincemanuele posted a video with the text “Girl at the front of Target in Phoenix keeps saying ‘Marco’ every time a little girl or boy passes her.”In the video, you can faintly hear someone in the background saying what appears to sound like “Marco.” “Human trafficking …
Read More »Pro-MAGA D.C. Cop Secretly Worked to Undermine Seth Rich Investigation
I t was the headline that made federal prosecutor Deborah Sines sit up straight in her chair. For nearly a year, she’d been investigating the murder of 27-year-old Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. During that time, she had watched as viral conspiracy theories and fantastical speculation about Rich had …
Read More »'Pandas Aren't Real' Is the Latest Conspiracy Theory Taking Off on TikTok
When you think of pandas, you typically think about one of two things: One, the adorable, monochromatic animal that was the subject of a 2003 DreamWorks Animation film, or two, that song by Desiigner. The latest conspiracy theory currently making the rounds on TikTok concerns the former — specifically, whether …
Read More »Fear and Slowing on the D.C. Beltway: Inside the People's Convoy's Big-Rig Political Sideshow
HAGERSTOWN, Md. —All of the trucks are full. Brian Brase, the co-organizer of the People’s Convoy, has a lot going on, but he’s still determined to get me into a truck before the convoy takes off at 10 a.m. sharp, headed out from the Hagerstown Speedway on a trek to …
Read More »Paul Gosar Just Promoted a Conspiracy Theory That He Built His Career Fighting Against
In 2001, Paul Gosar was a local dentist who passionately led a campaign to put fluoride in the drinking water in the Arizona city of Flagstaff. Faced with fierce opposition, Gosar called anti-fluoride conspiracy theories “disturbing,” suggested they could harm children, and vowed to “flood” the City Council chambers with …
Read More »Flat Earth: How a 19th-Century Meme Turned Into TikTok's Strangest Conspiracy Theory
Of all the conspiracy theories in history — QAnon, the faked moon landing, the belief that Katy Perry is somehow JonBenet Ramsey — perhaps none is as ridiculous, as outright outlandish, as Flat Earth theory. The archaic belief that the earth is flat and not a globe, as centuries of …
Read More »A Video Spreading Conspiracy Theories About a Satanic Sex-Trafficking Ring Is Going Viral
A 90-minute anti-child sex trafficking documentary by a Polish filmmaker promoting various tropes related to the conspiracy theory QAnon has gone viral on TikTok and YouTube, despite both platforms’ purported efforts to halt the spread of viral misinformation. A highly incendiary, sensationalized “documentary,” which Rolling Stone has chosen not to …
Read More »Instagram Is Pushing Anti-Vaccine Misinformation and QAnon Content, Study Finds
In the past year, social platforms like Facebook and Twitter have made very public efforts to try to prevent the proliferation of Covid-19-related misinformation and election fraud conspiracy theories. Yet a new study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which tracks the spread of misinformation on digital platforms, suggests …
Read More »What Is #SaveTheChildren and Why Did Facebook Block It?
On July 30th, model and influencer Helen Owen, who has more than a million followers, deviated from her typical fare of Mexican-beachside dinner videos and lush-haired bikini images to post a photo of herself and her boyfriend with their mouths bound, holding a sandwich board that read, “Speak up for …
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