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  • 2018-08-14 (xsd:date)
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  • Was a 'My Little Pony' Animator Arrested for Possession of Child Pornography Part of '#PedoGate'? (en)
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  • On 31 July 2018, the Ottawa Citizen reported that Tom Wysom, an animator for several children's cartoon series including My Little Pony, had been sentenced to more than two years in prison after pleading guilty to charges associated with possession of child pornography: Although this part of the story, reported by a legitimate news source citing court records, is true, the case prompted backers of popular conspiracy theory known as QAnon to link it with #PedoGate, a viral phenomenon and outgrowth of PizzaGate -- a belief that powerful Democrats and Hollywood elites were running a pedophile ring out of a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor basement (even though the restaurant, Comet Ping Pong, has no basement): Qanon conspiracy theory enthusiasts believe that a highly-placed government agent who goes by the moniker Q is dropping crumbs of information for his followers (bakers) to pick up. As Dutch psychologist and researcher Jan-Willem van Prooijen described the phenomenon: According to RationalWiki, the conspiracy is often referred to as The Storm because President Trump made a vague reference to the calm before the storm in 2017: Despite sounding crazy, the QAnon conspiracy has grown in influence, becoming most obvious to outsiders when supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump began sporting Q tee shirts en masse at Trump rallies. The Guardian referred to it as a volatile mix of Pizzagate, InfoWars and the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, multiplied by the power of the internet and with an extra boost from a handful of conservative celebrities. Internet users along with disreputable web sites often either fabricate pedophilia claims involving celebrities and prominent Democrats or lump real cases of criminal activity in with the conspiracy, despite lacking evidence of a link. Wysom's case falls into the latter category. The idea that Wysom's case was somehow associated with the #PedoGate conspiracy theory was helped along by followers of media personalities who heavily promoted PizzaGate, such as alt-right social media character Jack Posobiec and Alex Jones's conspiracy network InfoWars, which republished (then deleted) the Ottawa Citizen report: (en)
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