A report that the Jeffrey Epstein was injured in jail dredged up decades-old conspiracy theory about the Clintons — and thanks to a hashtag, the baseless rumor likely has a whole lot of new believers.
“What makes this particular trend terrifying is the fact that, contrary to some speculation on Twitter that it was driven largely by bots, its spread appears to have been largely organic, says Joan Donovan, PhD, director of technology and social change at Harvard Kennedy’s Shorenstein Center, who points out there didn’t appear to be a significant amount of bot activity associated with it.
‘It goes to show there are people participating in it because it’s trending — not because it’s something they believe in, but because they want to participate in the conversation,’ she says.”