This Pizzeria Is Not a Child-Trafficking Site

[benjipwns]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/technology/fact-check-this-pizzeria-is-not-a-child-trafficking-site.html

None of it was true. While Mr. Alefantis has some prominent Democratic friends in Washington and was a supporter of Mrs. Clinton, he has never met her, does not sell or abuse children, and is not being investigated by law enforcement for any of these claims. He and his 40 employees had unwittingly become real people caught in the middle of a storm of fake news.

“From this insane, fabricated conspiracy theory, we’ve come under constant assault,” said Mr. Alefantis, 42, who was once in a relationship with David Brock, a provocative former right-wing journalist who became an outspoken advocate for Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Alefantis suspects those relationships may have helped to make him a target. “I’ve done nothing for days but try to clean this up and protect my staff and friends from being terrorized,” he said.

Fake news online has been at the center of a furious debate for the past few weeks over how it may have influenced voters in the presidential election. President Obama warned last week that we are “in an age where there’s so much active misinformation and it’s packaged very well” on social media sites. The criticism has buffeted web companies such as Google and Facebook, whose chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, has promised to work on technology tools to slow the gusher of false digital information.

But Mr. Alefantis’s experience shows it is not just politicians and internet companies that are grappling with the fake news fallout. He, his staff and friends have become a new kind of private citizen bull’s-eye for the purveyors of false articles and their believers.

For more than two weeks, they have struggled to deal with the abusive social media comments and to protect photos of their own children, which were used in the false articles as evidence that the pizza restaurant was running a pedophilia ring. One person even visited Comet Ping Pong to investigate the allegations for himself.

To combat the fake news tide, Mr. Alefantis has contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the local police, and he has asked Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Reddit to remove the articles. Yet the misinformation has continued to spread, growing into a theory known as #pizzagate that has traveled to Ireland. At one point, Comet’s staff counted five #pizzagate Twitter posts a minute. As recently as Sunday night, the Twitter message “Don’t let up. #PizzaGate EVERYWHERE” was reposted and liked hundreds of times.

Mr. Alefantis mingles with other Washington chefs and his establishment helped him to be named No. 49 in GQ magazine’s 50 most powerful people in Washington in 2012. His customers include some high-powered locals, such as Tony Podesta, the brother of John Podesta, whom Mr. Alefantis knows casually.

Days before the election, users on the online message board 4Chan noticed that one of Mr. Podesta’s leaked emails contained communications with Mr. Alefantis discussing a fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton.

The 4Chan users immediately speculated about the links between Comet Ping Pong and the Democratic Party. Some posited the restaurant was part of a larger Democratic child trafficking ring, which was a theory long held by some conservative blogs. That idea jumped to other social media services such as Twitter and Reddit, where it gained momentum on the page “The_Donald.” A new Reddit discussion thread called “Pizzagate” quickly attracted 20,000 subscribers.

Soon, dozens of fake news articles on sites such as Facebook, Planet Free Will and Living Resistance emerged. Readers shared the stories in Saudi Arabia and on Turkish and other foreign language sites.

Last week, one supporter of the Pizzagate theory shot a live video from within the restaurant during a busy dinner shift. Local police, who had parked across the street after Mr. Alefantis filed a report about the fake news stories and threats, told the man to leave.

“We are at a dangerous place in American culture where a good percentage of people aren’t distinguishing what is a real news source based on real reporting and fact-checking and only reinforcing pre-existing ideas they have,” Ms. Kleinman said.

The frustration has been compounded by the lack of recourse for Mr. Alefantis, his friends and employees. Yelp blocked the comments sections of Comet Ping Pong’s review page after reports of abusive comments and fake news in reviews. YouTube said it prohibits threats, harassment and hate speech and has tools for flagging violations and filing complaints for the site to take further action, but has largely not blocked comments on these videos. Twitter declined to comment, and Facebook did not have any further comment.

After employees and Mr. Alefantis complained to Reddit about how Comet Ping Pong was being targeted on the site, the #pizzagate discussion thread posted a warning that revealing personal information about individuals was prohibited.

https://twitter.com/TradSierraHotel/status/800211990195081217

And we're supposed to believe that the Clinton supporting New York Times just happened along this case and wasn't tipped off with orders to start covering up a child sex trafficking ring?

On Monday morning, when Mr. Alefantis picked up his phone, he saw a text from a staff member warning that an individual might protest in front of the restaurant.

“It’s endless,” he said.

Thanks a lot Jon Stewart for normalizing FAKE NEWS.

[Great Rumbler]

Facebook was a mistake, it's nothing but trash.

[chronovore]

This is the logical progress of prank media, twitter trolls, reddit punditry, and 4chan's... well, 4chan's whatever.

[Phoenix Dark]

Does that mean no anchovies?

[seagrams hotsauce]

Reddit admins shut down the pizzagate subreddit about an hour ago, which is going over about as well as one might expect

[Vizzys]

plenty of strange things here, I was reading about this a week ago
do they add up to a child sex ring/child scrifice thing who knows
we will probably  never know if 4chan was on to something because they arent actual investigators
the moment 4chan was on these people they closed all their accounts with a quickness though, one that suggests collusion of some sort

[benjipwns]

[bluemax]

I wish fake news could do something good, like get us the unreleased Wutang album or feed Tiny Tim.

[Raist]

Hold up. Is this for real, or someone shop'd the police sketches? 

[Mr Gilhaney]

What a waste of money my order was then.

[Phoenix Dark]

Does that mean no anchovies?

No one got this joke, which was about anchovies being small child fish. Which clearly wouldn't be served at a pizzeria that is not in fact a child trafficking site.

[seagrams hotsauce]

plenty of strange things here, I was reading about this a week ago
do they add up to a child sex ring/child scrifice thing who knows
we will probably  never know if 4chan was on to something because they arent actual investigators
the moment 4chan was on these people they closed all their accounts with a quickness though, one that suggests collusion of some sort

4chan starts harassing businesses+
business shut down their facebooks=
collusion

[Huff]

That was a terrible joke

[studyguy]

So is this pizzaria gonna blow up too or what?

[Vizzys]

plenty of strange things here, I was reading about this a week ago
do they add up to a child sex ring/child scrifice thing who knows
we will probably  never know if 4chan was on to something because they arent actual investigators
the moment 4chan was on these people they closed all their accounts with a quickness though, one that suggests collusion of some sort

4chan starts harassing businesses+
business shut down their facebooks=
collusion

nah i was talking about the instragram accounts where they were talking in coded language
who the the fuck visits an instragram for a pizza place, and leaves weird ass comments about kids otherwise
some dipshit on 4chan let them know people were connecting dots and such and suddenly pics and accounts started getting deleted
people calling and leaving comments on facebook is way more recent

im not super into conspiracy stuff but i thought maybe they were on to something here.
ofc you can only do so much online and somebody compromised it.
hence why you need to be an actual organization like the FBI for this shit

[Samson Manhug]

Am I affected by confirmation bias or are there legitimately more crazies on The Bore since November 8th?

[chronovore]

Am I affected by confirmation bias or are there legitimately more crazies on The Bore since November 8th?

After the election, there are the same number of crazies but they're just less reserved about letting theirs craziness show.

[Phoenix Dark]

That was a terrible joke

[seagrams hotsauce]

plenty of strange things here, I was reading about this a week ago
do they add up to a child sex ring/child scrifice thing who knows
we will probably  never know if 4chan was on to something because they arent actual investigators
the moment 4chan was on these people they closed all their accounts with a quickness though, one that suggests collusion of some sort

4chan starts harassing businesses+
business shut down their facebooks=
collusion

nah i was talking about the instragram accounts where they were talking in coded language
who the the fuck visits an instragram for a pizza place, and leaves weird ass comments about kids otherwise
some dipshit on 4chan let them know people were connecting dots and such and suddenly pics and accounts started getting deleted
people calling and leaving comments on facebook is way more recent

im not super into conspiracy stuff but i thought maybe they were on to something here.
ofc you can only do so much online and somebody compromised it.
hence why you need to be an actual organization like the FBI for this shit

lol coded language wat

[VomKriege]

"Small with extra minge"

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Not sure i follow the logic of using a pizzeria as a front for a pedo ring.

[close]

[Robo]

I've eaten at this place and can fully corroborate all reports that the pizza is pretty good.

[Robo]

CENTIPEDES, DECODE THE ABOVE MESSAGE TO #MAGA !

[Mandark]

Dude walked into the place with a couple guns and said he was there to "self-investigate" the situation according to police. Already being called a false flag by the people you'd expect.

 

[Great Rumbler]

[Tasty]

plenty of strange things here, I was reading about this a week ago
do they add up to a child sex ring/child scrifice thing who knows
we will probably  never know if 4chan was on to something because they arent actual investigators
the moment 4chan was on these people they closed all their accounts with a quickness though, one that suggests collusion of some sort

[recursivelyenumerable]

apparently this place is some hipster hangout?

[Your Stalker]

Which one of you tried to shoot up this place?

[CajoleJuice]

apparently this place is some hipster hangout?

coworker of mine played a show there years back, apparently.

said the owner was really nice.

[CajoleJuice]

wow i'm a fucking idiot

[chronovore]

Friend of mine just posted a Voat thread/summary to get me up to speed on this. He doesn't believe it, but he also thinks there's too much there not for something to be fishy. I read his summary and a bunch more, and I see why it would be really-fucking-easy to start believing this kind of thing is happening under our noses all the time.

But it's not, this is bullshit.

And my mom's aunt weighed in "What about all the other shooters?????????????" and I'm trying to figure out if she's recently lost her mind or just recently emboldened to expose the crazy now that the USA has lost its fucking mind.  :-\

edit: mom's aunt used that many question marks, not smileys

[Brehvolution]

http://deadspin.com/of-course-andrew-bogut-has-bad-pizzagate-takes-1789756182

[Great Rumbler]

 

[MMaRsu]

The fact that there are people who actually believe this makes me sad for humanity

[Let's Cyber]

There is nothing wrong with ASKING questions.  As an example, where was Obama when the towers came down?  Now, don't get all offended.  I'm just asking questions.  He should be able to give us a detailed account of where he was that day BUT HE NEVER HAS!!!!  Or why hasn't the government addressed the connection between Tower 7, Sandyhook and Pizzagate?!?  Why are the Globalists given free reign to perpetuate false flag after false flag with zero repercussions?  Just ask questions, it is important for our democracy.   Also, remember to buy as much gold as you can before the illuminati institutes the Amero and devalues all of your hard earn cash!   Find out more at youtube.net/AndrewBogutAskingQuestions*StayWoke* or my new website    http://www.angelfire.lycos.com/AndrewBogutWillNeverStopResistingTheGlobalistDogsNoNewTaxesFalseFlagWarrior.

[seagrams hotsauce]

never forget
https://twitter.com/T_nels/status/790727737669451777

[etiolate]

The SJWs did blow a surefire, pre-ordained presidency to a reality TV star.

[TakingBackSunday]

 

[daycru]

Another winning move by the yasss queen to embolden/legitimize these nuts.

[Phoenix Dark]

The SJWs did blow a surefire, pre-ordained presidency to a reality TV star.

[Huff]

https://twitter.com/barstoolsports/status/796389942901477376/video/1