Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) walks through the U.S. Capitol on December 2, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
Unraveling viral disinformation and explaining where it came from, the harm it's causing, and what we should do about it.
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“Remember [Boebert and Greene] have access to strategic communication experts, comms people, strategists, etc,” Marc Andre Argentino, an extremist researcher tweeted. “And with all the social media data out there they can easily map the behavior of those who oppose them.”In her tweet, Boebert claimed that “365,348 children went missing in 2020.” That figure came from a National Crime Information Center report on missing children for juveniles under the age of 17 who were reported missing in 2020. However, the vast majority of these cases were resolved by the end of the year. The figure for active juvenile cases was just 30,000—and virtually all of those cases will have been returned home safely by now.Boebert’s false claim, however, is not the first of its kind. The conspiracy that there is widespread kidnapping and trafficking of children in the U.S. is one that has been pushed by the QAnon conspiracy movement for years. Boebert briefly expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy before she entered Congress and denounced the movement. However, like many of her Republican colleagues, Boebert has continued to boost specific QAnon conspiracies, most notably this false belief that there is a huge number of children currently trafficked for sex in the U.S.