English 3
22 November 2022
Pizza Gate Intro.
The PizzaGate conspiracy theory underlines the underside of spreading fake news on media platforms. It shows how the impact of social media on the spread of fake news in communities has increased tenfold. Technological advancements have enabled the creation of websites sharing familiar names as news outlets that convey the news to the general public. These websites propagate news without authenticating the originality but aim to gain popularity and following on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Moreover, pseudo-websites operate through sensationalism and create extreme emotional appeal among the general public to receive clicks and views. The clamor of gaming clicks on social media platforms and generating revenue through advertisements contribute to spreading fake news in communities. The pizza gate conspiracy emanated from a rumor story starting on Reddit before going viral on other social media platforms in 2016, culminating in a mistaken gunman identity.
The origin of the PizzaGate conspiracy theory was a Facebook post that became a story on Reddit before spiraling on other social media platforms in the US in 2016. The storyline involved a purported pedophile ring and operatives molesting young adults and children in captivity. According to the storyline, the 2016 US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton headed to the pedophile ring of other Democrats such as John Podesta (Miller). The rumor mill continues to inform unsuspecting public members about how the pedophile ring held children as captives in the basement of a pizza stone in Washington, DC. The allegations appeared accurate to the general public after providing location and direction details to the Comet Ping Pong restaurant (Miller). The fake news is believed to be the outcome of hacked emails relayed by WikiLeaks spread across Washington DC and the entire US despite members of the public having visited their alleged pieces to the basement and found no children in captivity.
The PizzaGate conspiracy theory involved fake news creators, distributors and victims. The creators of a fake story wanted to create sensationalism among the general public and attract viewership and clicks to their website. The euphoria of attracting clicks and views on Reddit and Twitter platforms motivated the fake story involving the 2016 presidential candidate on democratic party Hillary Clinton and his campaign manager John Podesta (Miller). Hillary Clinton and her Democrats were victims of the rumor mill that spread in Washington, DC and the entire world. Social media and legacy media outlets become distributors of the rumor. Info-Wars host Alex Jones received the rumor and exaggerated it in his reporting to allege that Hillary Clinton and her democratic party associates sexually abused children (Miller). Sexual abuse involves holding children captive and using satanic rituals to conduct the abuse in a business store basement. This reporting attracted a massive public following, with unsuspecting citizens projecting by taking cautionary and preventive measures.
The unsuspecting citizens were primary victims of the fake news that spread virally. Washington DC. Citizens, particularly those in the nearby vicinity, reacted by taking measures to prevent the purported sexual abuse of children. One notable victim Edgar Madison Welch became persuaded by the story and undertook reactionary measures meant for patriotism (Horton). Welch intended to save the said sexually-abused children using a rescue mission on “Pedo Ring.” In accomplishing the raid mission, Welch sought the assistance of two friends for the rescue mission on the “pedo ring.” (Horton) Welch equipped himself with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, handgun and knives for the mission despite a friend casting doubt on the integrity of the storyline.
Edgar Madison Welch’s preparations for the raid mission on Ping Pong became a mockery after the raid. In his first raid in the restaurant, he found no evidence of children in captivity. Welch headed to the back of the restaurant and found children playing. The sight of children playing gives Welch an indication that the purported sexual abuse was underway. Consequently, Welch headed to the kitchen, breaking through by shooting the door lock. Unfortunately, Welsh found no evidence of sexual abuse of children in the kitchen that contained cooking supplies. An extra search yielded no fruit since Welch found employees bringing in fresh pizza dough (Horton). Edgar Welch was astonished that ping pong did not have the alleged basement and no evidence existed to indicate sexual abuse of children. This development underlines how lethal rumors affect the general public and the potential consequences.
The PizzaGate conspiracy theory led to the arrest of Edgar Madison Welch on a purported terror mission. During his raid on Ping Pong, frightened wait staff went around tables whispering to workers and customers to vacate the premises (Kang and Frenkel). The panic and alarm at the ping pong restaurant led to the eventual arrest of Edgar Welch on suspicion of causing terror in a public place. This arrest was an outcome that underlined how fake news spreads and creates emotional reactions among citizens. It resulted in Edgar Welch’s persuasion that children were suffering sexual abuse at the hands of the country’s presidential contender. Moreover, the Edgar Welch story shows how American citizens are susceptible to radicalization using fake news spread on the internet (Kang and Frenkel). Fake news that creates sensationalism and emotional appeal among average American citizens can elicit reactions with far-reaching consequences.
The impact of the PizzaGate conspiracy theory on average Americans underlines the corresponding impact on the US Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and his democratic party. Average Americans consumed and internalized the disinformation and believed the negative fake news that tarnished Hillary Clinton’s character. Moreover, the fake news harmed Democrats and their presidential ambitions since average Americans believed Hillary Clinton and Democrats were pedophiles (Kang and Frenkel). This conspiracy theory underlines the impact of social media platforms, particularly Facebook and Twitter, that have a mass following by average Americans. A Facebook post made for fun and to attract viewership and clicks and increase the potential to attract advertisements and marketing deals can become news with a devastating impact on individuals and population segments (Metaxas and Finn). In the case of Hillary Clinton, a Facebook post made for sensationalism is fodder for opponents such as the far-right platforms (Info-Wars and Breitbart). Far-right platforms receive the fake news and modify it through deflection and exaggeration to punish the reputation of the opponents (Democrats) and undermine their political prospects (Metaxas and Finn). Moreover, Far-right platforms capitalize on fake news regardless of the source and intention and spread it to other social media platforms to create false feelings and emotions in the general public about a particular candidate group or political party.
The PizzaGate conspiracy theory represents disinformation in the modern-day social and political environment that sinks in average populations’ consciences with long-lasting implications. It requires time to debunk the disinformation generated and perpetuated in the modern-day environment with technological advancements (Metaxas and Finn). The PizzaGate conspiracy theory falls in the category of misconceptions that public clarifications cannot erase in citizens’ mindsets. Misleading social media posts arise without knowledge of the origin of the purported intention. The situation worsens when the misleading social media post touches on the country’s political themes, as in the Pizzagate scenario (Sebastian and Bruney). Political operatives, particularly from the opposite side, capitalize on the platform to create uncertainty while propagating half-truths and falsehoods. Consequently, the general public, with average citizens, cannot establish the originality of fakeness in the information. The resulting situation is diverse interpretations among citizens, which benefits the opposing political camps that gain political mileage.
The timing of fake news determines its impact on the political outcome in a political context. In the PizzaGate case, the rumor of Hillary Clinton sexually abusing children began on October 29th, 2016, coinciding with the FBI’s decision to open investigations into Clinton’s email communication when serving as the secretary of State (Sebastian and Bruney). The announcement of investigating Hillary Clinton on allegations of using private email during her tenure as the Secretary of State came after leakages and revelations. As a result, the timing of pizza gate’s fake news worsened the situation on Hillary Clinton regarding the Democrats’ prospect in the 2016 presidential election (Wendling). In the trail of email conversations leaked from a different electronic device, Hillary Clinton, her husband and her former aide Weiner used a pedophile billionaire ally’s plane for trips when Hillary Clinton still served as the secretary of state (Wendling). The fake news about Hillary Clinton sexually abusing children exasperated the already dire situation for Clinton, making it impossible to debunk when the US presidential elections were days away.
The PizzaGate conspiracy shows how calculated political opponents pound on purported stories about a candidate of Clinton’s level. Given the PizzaGate conspiracy events, the fake news on Hillary Clinton represented a choreographed effort to furnish an opponent’s reputation in the public domain (Wendling). It was incomprehensible how a Facebook or Reddit user could create a fake story touching on Hillary Clinton’s previous work engagements. The Facebook user could not have obtained details of Clinton’s former aide Weiner’s laptop that revealed how she used a notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet (Lopez). The lesson from the PizzaGate conspiracy is that propagandists and political follies court unsuspecting or anonymous Facebook or Reddit users and plant derogatory details. These anonymous Facebook or Reddit users post as ordinary social media post before it gains track and spread to the general public.
Fake news has several possibilities, considering the PizzaGate conspiracy theory. It shows how planting a conspiracy theory seed targets social media, websites and platforms with ordinary community interactions. After planting the conspiracy theory seed, conspirators wait for curious social media users to pick and repost the storyline before pounding with like-minded media platforms such as far-right media (Info-Wars and Breitbart) for further twisting and modifying to gain traction in the public domain (Lopez). The seeds of disinformation start with people holding sensitive information, such as FBI officials. Unscrupulous FBI or agency officials collaborate with political opponents to leak government secrets. These individuals deflect the meaning of government secrets before sowing fake news seeds
in the public domain (Wendling). Since FBI officials operate with an identity masking screen to conceal their identities, it becomes probable that fake news originates from officials holding crucial government secrets. In the PizzaGate case, crucial FBI operations facilitated information leakage, which emerged as fake news that devastated Hillary Clinton’s political ambitions.
Ultimately, the unfolding of events surrounding shows how destructive fake news gets with victims. The fake news culminated in the arrest of Welch, who went on a ping pong raid mission to rescue children allegedly held captive and sexually abused. Welch’s reaction and determination to accomplish the rescue mission shows the impact of disinformation on the conscience of average Americans. It shows how difficult it is to debunk a misconception, particularly touching on the country’s political space from the minds of Americans. The PizzaGate conspiracy underlines how disinformation in the public domain starts as ordinary social media posts or efforts utilized by political opponents to tarnish the reputation of their competitors. In the PizzaGate case, the coincidence involving sparkling and spreading fake news on Hillary Clinton’s and FBI announcement to start investigations showed behind the scene efforts by political adversaries.