Fake #Pizzagate Clinton Sex Trafficker News Leads To Death Threats (TWEETS/VIDEO)

Those unfortunate enough to have received a death threat email, tweet or text will know how shocking and painful it can be. Earlier this month Katie Johnson, the woman, alleging to have been raped, by president – elect Donald Trump when she was thirteen years old backed out of the lawsuit due to numerous death threats.

In post truth America, such instances are becoming increasingly common.

Death Threats

The owner of Washington D.C. based pizza restaurant, Comet Ping Pong discovered this first hand. When James Alefantis noticed a sudden spike in the people following him on Instagram, he must have thought that business was looking up.

Unfortunately nothing could have been further from the truth.

Threatening messages began appearing in the feed and they were soon followed by hundreds of death threats.

It seems his business had been linked to fictitious accounts of the former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton kidnapping, molesting, and trafficking children in its back rooms. Absurd though the stories were, they found fertile ground in the hysteria that led up to the 2016 Presidential election.

For some Clinton-haters, no slander was too extreme no tale too tall.

No matter how non-existent the evidence was.

The New York Times reported that dozens of stories linking Comet Ping Pong to a supposed sex trafficking ring, originated with publications such as The New Nationalist and The Vigilant Citizen. Neither site engaged in even the most cursory level of due diligence in pursuit of the story which stood to reason, really.

Considering that they had made the whole thing up.

To begin with, Mr. Alefantis has never met Hillary Clinton. His business is not connected to child abuse in any way, shape, or form. No or is he of has he ever been investigated by law enforcement. The idea that a person with as high a profile as Hillary Clinton could be involved in such crimes, and yet continue unnoticed is not simply fake news.

It crosses the line between fantasy and reality with more determination than the most free-spirited Woodstock era Hippy.

Terrorists

This was sub National Enquirer dross, and even so, people chose to see some vast underground conspiracy at work.

Mr. Alefantis was clearly shaken. He said:

“From this insane, fabricated conspiracy theory, we’ve come under constant assault.”

He believes that his past relationship with a man called David Brock might have something to do with why he was targeted. A former right-wing journalist, Brock earned the enmity of Conservative pundits when he opted to support Clinton’s bid for the White House.

Regardless of the motivations behind the smear campaign, Alefantis was angered by the effect it was having on his life and the lives’ of those around him.

He told the New York Times that he’d :

“…done nothing for days but try to clean this up and protect my staff and friends from being terrorized.” 

No Sense Or Sensibility

It’s easy to shrug things like this off; after all political scandals are nothing new. When they hit the news, the collateral damage caused to the friends and family of the accused can be severe. And often unavoidable.

Still, even the lowliest of news operators generally acts within the constraints of ethical standards. Facts are checked and if something erroneous is printed, it is retracted. Allegations are reported but convictions are left to the courts to decide.

And minors would never have been protected from the glare of publicity. The same cannot be said for the alt-right muckraker sites. Photos of the staff’s children were used as ‘evidence’ that the pizza restaurant was involved in sex trafficking.

And despite firm denials, and a paucity of evidence, the list of #pizzagate tweets simply would not disappear.

Some sought to link Kanye West’s recent hospitalization to the fabricated proceedings.

Others tried to make this a life or death issue; a war of the few against the many.

https://twitter.com/d_seaman/status/801036626482884608

Which is true. It is big.

News stories like this often are. Which is why fake news has to be challenged whenever it rears its ugly head.

Snopes has ultimately investigated and rated the news false. Watch a pizzagate conspiracy theorist get thrown out for harassing staff at the Comet:

Featured Image: Screenshot Via Snopes.com.

 

I'm a full- time, somewhat unwilling resident of the planet Earth. I studied journalism at Murdoch University in West Australia and moved back to the UK where I taught politics and studied for a PhD. I've written a number of books on political philosophy that are mostly of interest to scholars. I'm also a seasoned travel writer so I get to stay in fancy hotels for free. I have a pet Lizard called Rousseau. We have only the most cursory of respect for one another.