Above is an archived tweet from General Michael Flynn, posted two months before he (briefly) took office as National Security Advisor to Donald Trump. While his tweet wasn’t in reference to #Pizzagate specifically, it serves as a primer to this conversation.
While I am averse to the term “fake-news” — its meaning, however bastardized, demonizes media as a whole — the concept of the conspiracy theory dates back to the early 20th century. In the digital age, however, conspiracy theories have evolved thanks in part to two aspects of social media: those without authority can covertly plant the seeds for conspiracy, and those with authority can overtly spread the conspiracy en masse.
The origins of #Pizzagate are murky. The theory began in November 2016 on anonymous forums 4Chan and Reddit before taking to Twitter and Facebook. From there, the hashtag took odd hops; supporters of authoritarian Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used the hashtag to accuse opponents of hypocrisy while an actual child-abuse scandal rocked their country, while anonymous bots on Twitter spread the hashtag like wildfire, drawing the attention of prominent figures such as Donald Trump Jr. and political commentator Ann Coulter.
In an interview with the Rolling Stone, a member of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab describes the rise of #Pizzagate on Twitter as a “shepherd-sheepdog” situation. The shepherd account is run by an actual person, often under a persona. This account has the value of having a “human touch,” having a voice that sounds genuine and interacts with followers. Meanwhile, the sheepdog, which may or may not be human, amplifies the message by re-tweeting or using the same hashtags to make the topic appear more talked-about than it actually is.
It may be here where the would-be conspiracy follower would buy in, or perhaps it may take another, perhaps more “conventional” level of media.
Right-wing pundit Alex Jones gained notoriety for promoting #Pizzagate on his online talk-show Infowars. But Jones is no stranger to conspiracy. Jones began his career with a conspiracy-centered radio show in the late 90’s; he later adapted his approach to “build a media empire” by developing a website, releasing documentaries, and molding his own brand (and brand of dubious supplements) to appeal to and influence the wider Internet audience. Although Infowars’s presence on social media platforms has been erased by the likes of Youtube and Facebook, Jones has gained enough clout to where he can sustain a platform of his own.
And back to Michael Flynn. Those with political or social authority, for whatever reason, may overtly spread malignant theories over a broad audience. And perhaps that audience may invoke their own “participatory culture,” taking authority into their own hands, with potentially devastating consequences.