Pizzagate reached 1.4 million shares in five weeks before sparking armed action.

Evidence

Within the space of five weeks, Rolling Stone reported, Pizzagate “was shared roughly 1.4 million times by more than a quarter of a million accounts,” a potent and bizarre mix of human actors and possible bots, until it had become an exceedingly volatile global phenomenon. And at the end of that time, one Edgar Maddison Welch, a twenty-eight-year-old from North Carolina, arrived at Comet’s doors. — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 224

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A loaded-rifle attack on a pizzeria was triggered by viral Pizzagate articles — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 5

Broader Connections

• A loaded-rifle attack on a pizzeria was triggered by viral Pizzagate articles #expands (0.85) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 5