Perspective | A key legacy of 9/11? The way conspiracy theories spread online.

The most important rumors, of course, had to do with the search for the “truth” of what happened on 9/11. At first scattered, challenges to the “official story” were everywhere — on political blogs and message boards, and later on VHS tapes, burned DVDs and eventually YouTube. Such content coalesced around a few basic, unfounded premises — that the attacks were an inside job, that United 93 was shot down by the U.S. military, that the Pentagon was hit by missiles or that the government knew the attacks were coming and through incompetence or malign motive did nothing to stop them.

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