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Pizzagate conspiracy theory

"Pizzagate" redirects here. For the 2004 pizza-throwing incident, see Battle of the Buffet § "Pizzagate". For the Bill de Blasio controversy, see Bill de Blasio § Pizza controversy.
"SaveTheChildren" redirects here. For the charity, see Save the Children.

Exterior of Comet Ping Pong in Northwest, Washington, D.C.
Proponents of Pizzagate connected Comet Ping Pong (pictured) to a fictitious child sex ring

"Pizzagate" is a conspiracy theory that went viral during the 2016 United States presidential election cycle, falsely claiming that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) had discovered a pedophilia ring linked to members of the Democratic Party while searching through Anthony Weiner's emails.[1][2][3] It has been extensively discredited by a wide range of organizations, including the Washington, D.C. police.[2][3][4]

In March 2016, the personal email account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chair, was hacked in a spear phishing attack. WikiLeaks published his emails in November 2016. Proponents of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory falsely claimed the emails contained coded messages that connected several high-ranking Democratic Party officials and U.S. restaurants with an alleged human trafficking and child sex ring. One of the establishments allegedly involved was the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, D.C.[5][6]

Members of the alt-right, conservative journalists, and others who had urged Clinton's prosecution over her use of an unrelated private email server spread the conspiracy theory on social media outlets such as 4chan, 8chan, Reddit and Twitter.[7] In response, a man from North Carolina traveled to Comet Ping Pong to investigate the conspiracy and fired a rifle inside the restaurant to break the lock on a door to a storage room during his search.[8] Also, the restaurant's owner and staff received death threats from conspiracy theorists.[9]

Pizzagate is generally considered a predecessor to the QAnon conspiracy theory. It also generated another offshoot conspiracy theory, called Frazzledrip, which involved Hillary Clinton participating in the ritual murder of a child. Pizzagate resurged in 2020, mainly due to QAnon. While initially it was spread by only the far-right, it has since been spread by teens on TikTok "who don't otherwise fit a right-wing conspiracy theorist mold: the biggest Pizzagate spreaders on TikTok appear to otherwise be mostly interested in topics of viral dance moves and Black Lives Matter".[10] The conspiracy theory has developed and become less partisan and political in nature, with less emphasis on Clinton and more on an alleged worldwide elite of child sex-traffickers.[11]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYTDebunk was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference PolitiFact problem was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference snopes was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference hannahalam was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Shalby, Colleen (May 24, 2017). "How Seth Rich's death became an Internet conspiracy theory". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 29, 2017. Despite police statements and Rich's family concluding that his death was the result of an attempted robbery, the rumor spread within the same circles that churned out the bogus 'PizzaGate' story
  6. ^ Farhi, Paul (May 17, 2017). "A conspiratorial tale of murder, with Fox News at the center". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 18, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2017. The Rich story has taken on elements of the Comet Ping Pong conspiracy, a false and preposterous tale involving Hillary Clinton and her supposed operation of a child-abuse ring at a District pizza restaurant.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference bbc-pizzagate was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference NY Times 2016-12-05 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sommer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Kang, Cecilia; Frenkel, Sheera (June 27, 2020). "'PizzaGate' Conspiracy Theory Thrives Anew in the TikTok Era". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 27, 2020.
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