Sat Dec 11

How conspiracy theories in the US became more personal, more cruel and more mainstream after the Sandy Hook shootings

Written by: Amanda J. Crawford, Assistant Professor of Journalism, University of Connecticut

Conspiracy theories are powerful forces in the U.S. They have damaged public health amid a global pandemic, shaken faith in the democratic process and helped spark ^[1] a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol in January 2021.

These conspiracy theories are part of a dangerous misinformation crisis that has been building for years in the U.S.

American politics has long had a paranoid streak ^[2], and belief in conspiracy theories is nothing new ^[3]. But as the news cycle reminds us daily, outlandish conspiracy theories born on social media now regularly achieve mainstream acceptance and are echoed by people in power.

As a journalism professor ^[4] at the University of Connecticut, I have studied the misinformation ^[5] around the mass shooting that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012. I consider it the first major conspiracy theory of the modern social media age, and I believe we can trace our current predicament to the tragedy’s aftermath.

Nine years ago, the Sandy Hook shooting demonstrated how fringe ideas could quickly become mainstream ^[6] on social media and win support from various establishment figures – even when the conspiracy theory targeted grieving families of young students and school staff killed during the massacre.

Those who claimed the tragedy was a hoax showed up in Newtown, Connecticut, and harassed people connected to the shooting. This provided an early example of how misinformation spread on social media could cause real-world harm.

A woman in a red shirt sits among a group of people and holds a photo of a young boy.

Francine Wheeler displays a photograph of her son, Sandy Hook Elementary shooting victim Ben Wheeler, at a 2018 gun control rally. Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images ^[7]

New age of social media and distrust

Social media’s role in spreading misinformation ^[8] has been well documented in recent years. The year of the Sandy Hook shooting, 2012, marked the first year that more than half of all American adults used social media ^[9].

It also marked a modern low ^[10] in public trust of the media. Gallup’s annual survey ^[11] has since showed even lower levels of trust in the media in 2016 and 2021.

These two coinciding trends – which continue to drive misinformation – pushed fringe doubts about Sandy Hook quickly into the U.S. mainstream ^[12]. Speculation that the shooting was a false flag ^[13] – an attack made to look as if it were committed by someone else – began to circulate on Twitter and other social media sites almost immediately. Far-right commentator and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and other fringe voices ^[14] amplified these false claims.

Jones was recently found liable by default ^[15] in defamation cases filed by Sandy Hook families.

Mistakes in breaking news reports ^[16] about the shooting, such as conflicting information on the gun used and the identity of the shooter, were spliced together in YouTube videos and compiled on blogs as proof of a conspiracy, as my research ^[17] shows. Amateur sleuths collaborated in Facebook groups that promoted the shooting as a hoax and lured new users down the rabbit hole.

Soon, a variety of establishment figures ^[18], including the 2010 Republican nominee for Connecticut attorney general, Martha Dean ^[19], gave credence ^[20] to doubts about the tragedy.

Six months later, as gun control legislation stalled in Congress ^[21], a university poll ^[22] found 1 in 4 people thought the truth about Sandy Hook was being hidden to advance a political agenda. Many others said they weren’t sure. The results were so unbelievable that some media outlets questioned ^[23] the poll’s accuracy.

Today, other conspiracy theories have followed a similar trajectory on social media. The media is awash with stories about the popularity of the bizarre QAnon conspiracy movement ^[24], which falsely claims top Democrats are part of a Satan-worshipping pedophile ring. A member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, has also publicly denied Sandy Hook ^[25] and other mass shootings.

But back in 2012, the spread of outlandish conspiracy theories from social media into the mainstream was a relatively new phenomenon, and an indication of what was to come.

A man dressed in black speaks into a loudspeaker.

Alex Jones, owner of the conspiracy theory site Infowars, is among the public figures who have denied the Sandy Hook shootings. Zach Gibson/Getty Images ^[26]

New breed of conspiracies

Sandy Hook also marked a turning point in the nature of conspiracy theories and their targets. Before Sandy Hook, popular American conspiracy theories generally villainized shadowy elites or forces within the government. Many 9/11 “truthers,” for example, believed the government ^[27] was behind the terrorist attacks, but they generally left victims’ families alone.

Sandy Hook conspiracy theorists accused family members of those killed ^[28], survivors of the shooting, religious leaders, neighbors ^[29] and first responders of being part of a government plot.

Newtown parents were accused of faking their children’s deaths, or their very existence. There were also allegations they were part of a child sex cult.

This change in conspiratorial targets from veiled government and elite figures to everyday people marked a shift in the trajectory of American conspiracy theories.

Since Sandy Hook, survivors of many other high-profile mass shootings ^[30] and attacks, such as the Boston Marathon bombing ^[31] and the Charlottesville car attack ^[32], have had their trauma compounded by denial about their tragedies.

And the perverse idea of a politically connected pedophile ring has become a key tenet in two subsequent conspiracy theories: Pizzagate ^[33] and QAnon ^[34].

The kind of harassment and death threats ^[35] targeting Sandy Hook families has also become a common fallout of conspiracy theories. In the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, the owners and employees of a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor ^[36] alleged to be part of a pedophile ring that included politicians continue to be targeted by adherents of that conspiracy theory. In 2016, one man drove hundreds of miles to investigate and fired his assault rifle ^[37] in the restaurant.

Some people who remain skeptical of the COVID-19 pandemic have harassed front-line health workers ^[38]. Local election workers across the country have been threatened ^[39] and accused of being part of a conspiracy to steal the 2020 presidential election.

The legacy of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook is a legacy of misinformation – the start of a crisis that will likely plague the U.S. for years to come.

[The Conversation’s Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories. Sign up for Politics Weekly ^[40].]