The false theory targeting Democrats, now fueled by QAnon and
teenagers on TikTok, is entangling new targets like Justin Bieber.
Four minutes into
a video that was posted on Instagram last month, Justin Bieber leaned into the
camera and adjusted the front of his black knit beanie. For some of his 130
million followers, it was a signal.
In the video,
someone had posted a comment asking Bieber to touch his hat if he had been a
victim of a child-trafficking ring known as PizzaGate.
Thousands of comments were flooding in, and there was no evidence that Bieber
had seen that message. But the pop star’s innocuous gesture set off a flurry of
online activity, which highlighted the resurgence of one of social media’s
early conspiracy theories.
Viewers quickly
uploaded hundreds of videos online analysing Bieber’s action. The videos were
translated into Spanish, Portuguese and other languages, amassing millions of
views. Fans then left thousands of comments on Bieber’s social media posts
asking him if he was safe. Within days, searches for “Justin and PizzaGate”
soared on Google, and the hashtag #savebieber started trending.
Four years ago,
ahead of the 2016 presidential election, the baseless notion that Hillary
Clinton and Democratic elites were running a child sex-trafficking ring out of
a Washington pizzeria spread across the internet, illustrating how a crackpot
idea with no truth to it could blossom on social media — and how dangerous it
could be. In December 2016, a vigilante gunman showed up at the restaurant with
an assault rifle and opened fire into a closet.
In the years
afterward, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube managed to largely suppress PizzaGate.
But now, just months before the next presidential election, the conspiracy
theory is making a comeback on these platforms — and on new ones such as TikTok
— underlining the limits of their efforts to stamp out dangerous speech online
and how little has changed despite rising public frustration.
