severak
18.1.2018 12:21:14
Pizzagate conspiracy theory
Pizzagate is a debunked conspiracy theory that emerged and went viral during the 2016 United States presidential election cycle. In the fall of 2016, the personal email account of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, was hacked in a spear-phishing attack and his emails were made public by WikiLeaks. Proponents of the Pizzagate theory falsely claimed that the emails contained coded messages referring to human trafficking and connecting a number of restaurants in the United States and members of the Democratic Party with an alleged child-sex ring. The theory has been extensively discredited by a wide array of organizations, including the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia. Origins Genesis This conspiracy theory emerged near the end of the 2016 United States presidential election cycle. On October 30, 2016, a reputed white supremacist Twitter account included a display of a claim that the New York City Police Department, which was searching emails found on Anthony Weiner's laptop as part of an investigation into his sexting scandals, had discovered...