Even back at the outset, it was clear that the claims of kidnapping and sex trafficking on Wayfair were being generated with little more than a quick Google search of names, and fast-tracking the resulting accusations through the viral swamp of Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook. Even in those very first posts, some of the names given for people being trafficked were actually for kids who were safe at home. Some families, or even the kids themselves, took to social media to try and demonstrate they were not in peril. They were widely ignored. 

Instead, the conspiracy elaborated on the meanings behind the SKU numbers attached to items, coming up with a system in which this provided a description for the child being trafficked. They made claims about particular items being purchased by specific celebrities. They spread rumors that executives at Wayfair were involved in the scheme. And all the while, the number of posts, the number of viewers, and the spread of the conspiracy claims was exploding.

For many of those named, the Wayfair posts created fear, trauma, and even threats. Thirteen-year-old Samara Duplessis was at home browsing Instagram when she found posts that claimed she was missing and being trafficked on Wayfair. Almost immediately, family members and friends began making frantic calls to her home, checking on Samara’s status. Her picture was posted to the internet thousands of times in posts that collected millions of views, all of them claiming she was being sold by child traffickers. Her parents panicked over what they saw as a threat. Both Samara and her parents plunged into a sea of fear even as the flood of phone calls, texts, and social media messages continued.

“Can my child go outside?” asked Samara’s mother. “Can she go to the grocery store without people lurking? We don’t know.”

When Samara’s family and other children named in the claims begged for people to stop posting their picture and stop claiming that were missing, they got back angry messages telling them to shut up.

“You’re mad because I’m telling you that I’m not missing?” [a reportedly missing 18-year-old girl] asked the 530,000 viewers of her live stream.

A woman watching didn’t like her tone. “Put her ass back in the cabinet,” she commented.

For all of the people who claimed they wanted to help these missing kids, it seemed no one was willing to actually listen to the kids, or admit that they had been caught up in a viral hoax that left those kids shaken and made many people assume their families were somehow connected to child sex trafficking.

The harm wasn’t limited to just those being named. Police departments were flooded by false reports and by people who were certain they had “solved” some part of what they saw as a puzzle just waiting for someone to connect the dots. Organizations that actually address child trafficking had to put real cases aside in order to deal with the wave of claims, tips, and demands related to the utterly false conspiracy. Real victims of sex trafficking were ignored because groups like the National Human Trafficking Hotline were too busy fending off calls about kids being sold by Wayfair. 

All of this appears to have started with a single post from a single woman who calls herself “Amazing Polly.” She’s a Canadian QAnon follower whose other contributions to the internet include YouTube videos like “How to fight Islamic prayer in school” and “Diversity is a con job.” Like many others deep in QAnon, she believed that Barack Obama, the Queen of England, and the Pope were all “deep state criminals” enmeshed in the child-trading and cannibalism ring.

But many of those who picked up on the Wayfair story would never have reposted those other thoughts from Amazing Polly. In fact, one of the first re-posts of the Wayfair claim to go viral came from a 21-year-old Black woman who saw this as a story where a missing Black girl was being ignored. 

That’s what makes these claims, whether in Pizzagate or QAnon, so powerful. People really are concerned about missing and exploited children. They know that kids go missing. They know that sex trafficking is real. They’re constantly bombarded by confusing and concerning messages that thousands of kids disappear each year. They’re constantly hearing stories of the very real, heartbreaking things that happen to some of these children.

Rates of sexual violence in the United States have fallen by more than 50% since the 1990s, and 93% of sexual violence cases today involve friends or family members. Even the rate of missing children declined significantly between 1999 and 2013. In 2015, The Washington Post reported that “there has never been a safer time to be a kid in America.“

But it doesn’t feel that way. 

Both the 24-hour news cycle and social media are designed to build on fears, play up the worst that humans have to offer, and make it seem as if the world is a sea of predators. Teaching children to be smart and to report potential threats is a very good thing. Making everyone believe that the leaders of their government are part of a vast conspiracy that is involved in selling, raping, and eating children … is a very bad thing. 

It’s easy to understand why plotting against a government that you sincerely believe is engaged in this kind of behavior would seem not just acceptable, but admirable. That’s why claims of child sex trafficking are the perfect gateway drug, luring people in to QAnon and other conspiracies. People get hooked by their hearts. Snagged on their sympathies.

There’s no doubt that many, if not most, QAnon supporters already had leanings that would have included Amazing Polly’s other racist and antisemitic posts. But it doesn’t take a QAnon supporter to spread these claims. In fact, even Pizzagate is making a comeback—not among Trump supporters, but among young people who are circulating some of the original claims again in TikTok videos and Instagram posts. They’re doing it because they want to help.

It’s not helping.

If you have knowledge about a child who has gone missing, contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

If you have any knowledge or concerns about potential human trafficking, no matter what the age or gender of the possible victims, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

If you are the victim, or suspect someone else is the victim, of sexual violence—inside or outside of their home—contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline.   

If you see social media posts insisting that there is a vast conspiracy to traffic children around the world, whether through pizzerias or furniture retailers, please report it to the social media outlet so that it can be taken down. Doing so helps to protect children in trouble by not overwhelming agencies and nonprofits with false claims.