Conspiracy And Children

Abbie Richards, a climate science student in the Netherlands, was looking with bewilderment at the state of her home country of the United States. So many conspiracy theories echoing, particularly ahead of the election. Struggling to wrangle all of them for a paper, she made a chart naming some 100 conspiracies dominating the social media world to, she hoped, make…

Does a photo posted to social media show Nancy Pelosi's son abusing a little girl? And is the image one of those purported to have been on Hunter Biden's laptop? No, that's not true: The photo is not new. It was published last year as part of an article about Paul Pelosi Jr. Also, the image does not show abuse.…

Does a disturbing video show children rescued from being trafficked and is it evidence of a huge market for kidnapped children? No, that's not true. A video showing suspected family members of ISIS fighters trying to escape from a Syrian refugee camp is being falsely used by QAnon promoters to support their claim that children are being kidnapped and trafficked…

Is it confirmed that The White House has video footage -- and is set to release it -- of Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden's son Hunter raping and torturing minor girls? No, that's not true: conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' claim is not supported by independent named sources, authenticated documents nor any other form of evidence that is the minimum required…

Did Anthony Weiner's laptop contain "proof Hillary Clinton & her associates are involved in child trafficking and pedophilia"? No, that's not true: The claim is part of a debunked conspiracy theory that has circulated for years. There's absolutely no evidence to support it. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on October 18, 2020. The post included screenshots…

Are human traffickers putting zip ties on cars to distract the car owners and then abduct them? No, that's not true: There is no concrete evidence to substantiate these claims. Multiple police departments, fact checking sites, and nonprofits have refuted and debunked the claims. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) where it was published by the Facebook user…

Did a German schoolchild die as a result of wearing their required mask in school? No, there's no evidence: The person making the claim provided no evidence, not even the place, age or date of death. Police in the Lower Franconia region of Bavaria have labelled a related claim a hoax and asked social media users to stop spreading it.…

Was New York state Assembly Bill A99, sponsored by Assemblyman Nick Perry, drawn up to take advantage of the pandemic, with the purported aim of allowing state officials to remove infected residents -- namely children -- from their homes and keep them in detention facilities indefinitely? And is the pandemic "fake" and is COVID-19 made-up? No, none of that is…

Is "Pizza Gate" real? No, that's not true: So-called proof for Pizzagate is unsubstantiated and speculative. It relies on tricks of the trade common to people pushing unproven allegations. Authorities have described Pizzagate as a "fictitious online conspiracy theory." The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on Facebook on August 21, 2020. The post contains a nearly hour-long…

Are people trying to lower the legal age of consent to just four years old? No, that's not true: There is zero evidence that there is an effort to lower the legal age of consent is to four years old anywhere in the U.S. The claim appeared in a Facebook meme (archived here) where it was published on September 3,…