How a fake news story about an Oprah Winfrey sex-trafficking arrest went viral

Mother Jones

The false story that Oprah's home was raided Tuesday, prompting her to debunk the conspiracy on Twitter after her name was trending, "had seemingly materialized out of thin air," reports Ali Breland. "No authoritative sources or legitimate outlets reported on it, but it still caught traction, confusing most people who saw it." Breland says the fake story seemed to originate from a YouTuber who posted fake footage of a raid. The video was then boosted to the mainstream by right-wing QAnon groups eager to push pedophile conspiracies. "That 'footage' was completely bogus, and appeared to just be a video of unrelated police action at a house that did not appear to be Winfrey’s, or even the kind of house one would expect the billionaire talk show mogul to call home," says Breland. "Regardless, the video and the personal webpage that the YouTuber had posted it on started circulating on QAnon Facebook groups and other fringe right message boards, accruing thousands of likes and shares within hours, according to analytics recorded by Facebook’s own CrowdTangle app."