How Conspiracy Theorists Are Disrupting Efforts To Fight Human Trafficking : 1A
A protestor holds a sign during a “Save our Children” rally outside Downing Street in London, England. Conspiracy theorists have recently coopted #SaveTheChildren to find new followers. Hollie Adams/Hollie Adams/Getty Images hide caption
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Hollie Adams/Hollie Adams/Getty Images
A protestor holds a sign during a “Save our Children” rally outside Downing Street in London, England. Conspiracy theorists have recently coopted #SaveTheChildren to find new followers.
Hollie Adams/Hollie Adams/Getty Images
QAnon is a group that believes in a host of far-fetched, baseless conspiracy theories.
One of them is that a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles runs a child sex-trafficking ring. They say the Democrats are in on it and President Donald Trump is trying to save the children. Again: These are conspiracies. There is no evidence to support these claims.
About two dozen candidates running for Congress this election cycle are followers, including Republican Marjorie Douglas Greene, who is very likely to win a House seat in Georgia.
Fake conspiracies about children getting trafficked are getting in the way of real efforts to fight human trafficking.
How did we get here? What can we do about it? And how can we talk to the people we care about who might believe these conspiracy theories?
We spoke with journalists Ben Collins and Kevin Roose to learn more about QAnon.
We also talked with the director of the US National Human Trafficking Hotline Megan Cutter about how QAnon is harming their efforts to fight human trafficking and Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) about his recent bill in Congress to denounce QAnon.
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