In November 2016, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, John Podesta, was hacked, and his emails were posted by Wikileaks. One email was with James Alefantis, who owned pizzeria Comet Ping Pong, addressing a possible fundraiser at the restaurant. It was a kid-friendly pizza place, fit with craft rooms and ping pong tables, and it hosted occasional small concerts. Since Alefantis was a Clinton-supporter and Podesta’s brother frequented the pizzeria, it made sense to try to organize a fundraiser there.
However, 4Chan users speculated a hidden connection between the Democratic Party and the pizzeria. Soon, a rumor surfaced proclaiming that the pizzeria headquartered a child trafficking ring run by Hillary Clinton (Yes, really). It spread to Reddit and far-right websites with photos of customers’ children and coded symbols used as “evidence” to support their claim. Then, a pro-government Turkish media outlet tweeted about #pizzagate. They wanted to show how President Erdogan was outraged about the “child-trafficking scandal” while his opponents didn’t care.
Comet Ping Pong’s social media blew up, with many commenting, “We’re onto you,” and some sending death threats. Alefantis and his staff even received personal text messages and phone calls threatening them. Alefantis worked with the local police, FBI, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit to try and remove posts about the conspiracy theory, but conspiracy believers just kept posting.
It gets crazier. On December 4, 2016, inspired by the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, Edgar Welch entered Comet Ping Pong with an AR-15 rifle, a .38 handgun, a shotgun, and a knife. He had gone to self-investigate the conspiracy theory about child-trafficking ring. As the employees called the police, Welch opened fire, but did not hit anyone. The police surrounded the restaurant, and 45 minutes later, Welch walked out with his hands in the air and surrendered. He discovered Pizzagate was a lie. He was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon and destruction of property, and he was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
After the shooting, Michael Flynn Jr., Trump’s chief of staff and his closest adviser, tweeted in support of Pizzagate. Similarly, his father, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser, tweeted a link to fake story proclaiming that the NYPD had found evidence linking Hillary Clinton and a child-sex ring.
However, since the incident, there has been a change in how social media companies deal with fake news and conspiracies. In 2016, Reddit banned the pizzagate groups, and in early 2019, YouTube announced they were going to stop recommending conspiracy videos though Facebook has not made an effort to close pizzagate Facebook groups, with have more than 40,000 members combined.
Because of this, the popularity of pizzagate somewhat declined, but not for long.
On January 23, 2019, a fire was intentionally set at Comet Ping Pong with lighter fluid and matches. While the restaurant had to evacuate, little damage was done.
However, social media blew up, with people accusing the pizzeria of trying to destroy evidence. Nonetheless, conspiracy theorists rejoiced, claiming, “Burn baby burn that evil place of debauchery of children, torture and murder down.”
On February 4, 2019, Ryan Jaselskis was arrested and was wearing the same blue jacket as the arson on the security camera videos. It is unclear what his intentions were.
Pizzagate shows the threat of fake news and false conspiracy theories. It can inspire people to investigate for themselves, often using violence. We also can’t have advisors to the president promoting fake news. This just validates those who believe in it, has the possibility to influence legislation, and embarrasses our country.
This incident also demonstrates the dangers of group polarization. When people join one pizzagate Facebook group, they are bombarded with suggestions for other related groups and pages. This creates an echo chamber where all those people are their opinions and opinions similar to them, reinforcing their ideas and often radicalizing them. What’s even worse is that opposing views are filtered out by Facebook’s algorithms, so people never consider the other side and evaluate their beliefs. On top of that, Facebook’s algorithms push more conspiracy theories at these people. If someone is in the group Pizzagate, the recommendation engine will show them “Official Flat Earth & Globe Discussion” and “Real UFO Sightings & Strange Phenomenon.”
Facebook defended its algorithm, proclaiming they take down misinformation that could lead to violence, therefore nonviolence conspiracy theory groups can stay. Didn’t pizzagate lead to a shooting? Didn’t it lead to arson? Pizzagate has already led to enough violence and threatening messages toward Comet Ping Pong Employees. It must be shut down on Facebook.
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It is definitely true that technology, including algorithms, have allowed for the spread and popularizing of conspiracies,
ReplyDeleteincreasing their validity to the point where people are willing to commit acts of violence based on them. This extends beyond Facebook, as others such as YouTube have also faced backlash for the way their algorithms work. The site determines a video's credibility through the amount of views it has, allowing for videos proclaiming shootings as performances rather than actual tragedies (such as the Las Vegas shooting in 2017). While one solution is to hire humans to evaluate content rather than machines, this paves the way for possible biases to be used to censor some groups. It will probably be difficult to come up with a solution that does not compromise in some way. If shutting down conspiracies is effective, then it might be the best method of doing so. Although, it should be mentioned that this is only possible once conspiracies have already crossed the line into real-life violence, meaning preventative measures, while preferable, are probably unrealistic.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/01/25/youtube-is-changing-its-algorithms-stop-recommending-conspiracies/