Lauren Cargill - Fake News, Real Violence: 'Pizzagate'

Summary: A conspiracy theory known as "Pizzagate" has been circling the internet like crazy. One man even showed up at the pizza place theorists believe is at the center of a web of guns, armed. Luckily no one was hurt, but the incident has shown how online theories can have consequences in real life. The people who believe in the theory think that the armed man was fake and it was nothing but a cover up. They think that there is a "pedophilia ring supposedly being run out of the pizza shop that somehow involved Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta, among other Democrats." Believers carried this theory all through the election. The armed man, Edgar Maddison Welch from North Carolina, told police that he came to the pizza shop to "investigate." The owner of the pizza shop said this, "Let me state unequivocally: these stories are completely and entirely false, and there is no basis in fact to any of them. What happened today demonstrates that promoting false and reckless conspiracy theories comes with consequences. I hope that those involved in fanning these flames will take a moment to contemplate what happened here today, and stop promoting these falsehoods right away."
Analysis: I think its really interesting how fake news can travel so fast. Recently, there have been many discussions about this topic, especially surrounding the election. Many of these stories aren't actually started by people who believe in them, but rather people who just think it would be funny. It surprises me that so many people will believe anything they read on the internet. This could be compared to all the other occasions that something has come out on the internet that was false, but people believed in such as the belief that humans only use 10% of their brains. I think that people need to be careful not to believe everything they read.