The new found spread of Pizza Gate through the Gen Z generation Makenzie Bowman
After starting a live show on Instagram a few months ago, Justin Bieber touched the front of his beanie. For some of his 130 million followers, it was a signal. In the video, someone asked 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. Justin’s slight gesture sent a wave of concern through the internet, which started once again one of social media’s early conspiracy theories. Viewers quickly uploaded hundreds of videos online analyzing Bieber’s action. The videos were translated into Spanish, Portuguese and other languages, gaining 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” were searched on Google, and the hashtag #savebieber started trending. Four years ago, before the 2016 presidential election, the allegation that Hillary Clinton and Democratic elites were running a child sex-trafficking ring out of a Washington pizzeria spread across the internet, showing how a rumor with no evidence could spread on social media. In December 2016, a gunman showed up at that same pizzaria with an assault rifle and opened fire into a closet. In the years afterward, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube managed to largely suppress PizzaGate.
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. This time, PizzaGate is being fueled by a younger generation that is active on TikTok, which was in its infancy four years ago, as well as on other social media platforms. “Younger people on TikTok have made PizzaGate more relatable for them. So a conspiracy that centered on Hillary Clinton and other politicians a few years ago now instead ropes in celebrities like Justin Bieber. Everyone is at home, bored and online more than usual. When I talked to teens who were spreading these conspiracy videos, many of them said it seemed like fun.” Says Shira Ovide.
The conspiracy group QAnon is also promoting PizzaGate in private Facebook groups and creating easy-to-share memes on it. PizzaGate is reaching a level that nearly exceeds its 2016 fever pitch, according to an analysis by The New York Times. TikTok posts with the #PizzaGate hashtags have been viewed more than 82 million times in recent months. Google searches for PizzaGate have skyrocketed. In the first week of June, comments, likes and shares of PizzaGate also spiked to more than 800,000 on Facebook and nearly 600,000 on Instagram, according to data from CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool for analyzing social interactions. That compares with 512,000 interactions on Facebook and 93,000 on Instagram during the first week of December 2016. From the start of 2017 through January this year, the average number of weekly PizzaGate mentions, likes and shares on Facebook and Instagram was under 20,000, according to Twitter and Instagram analysis. Pizzagate is a dangerous theory, with the ban of Tik Tok, perhaps we could put an end to the spreading of false information.
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. This time, PizzaGate is being fueled by a younger generation that is active on TikTok, which was in its infancy four years ago, as well as on other social media platforms. “Younger people on TikTok have made PizzaGate more relatable for them. So a conspiracy that centered on Hillary Clinton and other politicians a few years ago now instead ropes in celebrities like Justin Bieber. Everyone is at home, bored and online more than usual. When I talked to teens who were spreading these conspiracy videos, many of them said it seemed like fun.” Says Shira Ovide.
The conspiracy group QAnon is also promoting PizzaGate in private Facebook groups and creating easy-to-share memes on it. PizzaGate is reaching a level that nearly exceeds its 2016 fever pitch, according to an analysis by The New York Times. TikTok posts with the #PizzaGate hashtags have been viewed more than 82 million times in recent months. Google searches for PizzaGate have skyrocketed. In the first week of June, comments, likes and shares of PizzaGate also spiked to more than 800,000 on Facebook and nearly 600,000 on Instagram, according to data from CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool for analyzing social interactions. That compares with 512,000 interactions on Facebook and 93,000 on Instagram during the first week of December 2016. From the start of 2017 through January this year, the average number of weekly PizzaGate mentions, likes and shares on Facebook and Instagram was under 20,000, according to Twitter and Instagram analysis. Pizzagate is a dangerous theory, with the ban of Tik Tok, perhaps we could put an end to the spreading of false information.
