Fake News/Conspiracy Theories

1. Human Trafficking

1.1. Human trafficking is the exploitation of humans for labor or sex by the use of "force, fraud, or coercion": this is a common crime as it is seen as a low risk, high reward act ("Human Trafficking"). In 2019, 48,326 contacts, in form of email, calls, or web forum, were made in an effort to secure a victim, leading to the reporting of 11, 500 reported cases of human trafficking ("Hotline Statistics"). Sex trafficking far outweighs labor trafficking, and adult females are the greatest demographic preyed upon ("Hotline Statistics").

2. Pizzagate

2.1. The Washington post describes Pizzagate as “the belief that code words and satanic symbols point to a sordid underground along an ordinary retail strip in the nation’s capital.” It reports that conspiracy theorists believe that there was an underground system under a chain of stores in D.C. in a well-to-do neighborhood where sexually abused children were ushered (Fisher, Cox, & Hermann, 2016). According to a New York Times article, Pizzagate was born from rumors that Hilary Clinton and her top people were running a child trafficking ring out of a pizza place in D.C., and in reaction to the rumors, a North Carolina man who had been following the conspiracy theory charged the restaurant while armed in search of these children (Aisch, Huang, & Kang, 2016).

3. VooDoo Donuts

3.1. Apparently in an effort to promote Trump, his supporters quickly spread the conspiracy that VooDoo Donuts was the front of an underground child trafficking ring that they titled “Donutgate,” much like “Pizzagate,” in Youtube videos that went viral (Singer, 2018). The logo features a voodoo doll whose body contains a symbol reportedly related to the “little boy lover” symbol affiliated with pedofelia (Morabito, 2018).

4. VeganMikey, Sara Ruth Ashcroft, & Fiona Barnett

4.1. VeganMikey is actually Michael Whelen, the man who began the VooDoo Doughnut accusations after claiming to have attended a party at the home of the owner and witnessing abuse of children; after speaking out, others at the party turned on him, elevating to the level of death threats (Morabito, 2018). Sarah Ruth Ashcraft posted on her Twitter that her father sold her to actor Tom Hanks for sex when she as 13 years old, yet Tom Hanks has never been accused of such actions prior to this; Ashcraft makes a very dramatic first claim and then aligns herself strongly with conspiracy theorists promoting Pizzagate (“Debunking,” 2020) Fiona Barnet is an Australian Woman who is a survivor of a VIP pedofile ring; she speaks out about her experiences, but is often chastised for doing so (Burke, 2015)

5. Q Anon

5.1. QAnon is a person/group that, in 2017, began posting conspiracy theories with a great claim to have top secret information only give to those with highest clearance. This person/group promoted the theory that a cabal of pedophiles runs the world and that one of the great aims of Trump is to disband and expose this sick ring- including those such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Tom Hanks, and Oprah Winfrey as the claim is that they are part of a child sex trafficking ring (Gill, 2020). In an effort to cut down on offline violence due to claims made by this group, YouTube, the site most sourced for QAnon information, is making an effort to reduce QAnon content for viewers, as are other platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (Roose, 2020)The changes they have made have reduced the views of videos with this content by up to 70 % (Roose, 2020).

6. Isaac Cappy

6.1. Isaac Kappy is an actor who supposedly committed suicide, but many feel like this was not self inflicted as soon before his death he brought awareness to child pedofelia; many theorists link Tom Hanks to his death as they work to string together social media posts, timing, and locations of each (Kaplan, 2019).

7. Operation Broken Heart

7.1. Operation Broken Heart was an investigation launched by Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) that led to the arrest of almost 1,700 suspected online sex offenders. Going off of the leads of online reports and complaints, this task force created from 61 offices of ICAC across all 50 states investigated over 18,500 cases of crimes against children online from the creation and sharing of child pornography to those who have committed child sexual abuse. Not only did this operation involve the catching of predators, but it also worked to education the public on internet safety, providing over 2,000 presentations to over 200,000 youth and adults (The United States Office of Justice, 2019).

8. MKUltra

8.1. This was an effort to establish procedures for mind control with the intent of being able to capture and control the mind of enemies in times of war. While the research took place in university research centers and prisons, there was no effective procedure established, even though the scientist, Sidney Gottlieb, concluded that before the mind can be controlled, the current mind of the one being controlled must first be eliminated. Though there is not definite number, many people died and many other lives were forever affected. After all of his efforts, he concluded that mind control is actually not possible (Gross, 2019).