Hillary, pizza and a phony sex scandal: The power of ‘fake news’

WASHINGTON: The internet rumour had the makings of a bizarrely sordid scandal involving a top political aide to Hillary Clinton, allegations of pedophilia and a restaurant in an upscale part of Washington.

It ended in death threats against a small business owner — and became a shocking case study in the dangers of the growing prevalence of ‘ fake news.’

The fake news phenomenon has sent major internet companies scrambling to respond amid claims that bogus reports that proliferated ahead of the US presidential election may have skewed the result.

This episode started in October after WikiLeaks published a batch of hacked emails from John Podesta, the chairman of Clinton’s presidential campaign. Journalists and others have pored over the tens of thousands of stolen communications in search of politically relevant information.

But some readers honed in on a handful of innocuous messages recounting a Clinton fundraiser involving James Alefantis, the owner of a popular Washington pizzeria called Comet.

Almost immediately, ‘pizzagate’ was born as right-leaning conspiracy theorists on the discussion sites 4chan and Reddit claimed Comet was not just a purveyor of pizza and beer but in fact a sinister front hiding a politically connected pedophile ring. Word quickly spread. — AFP