On Elon Musk’s Twitter, a reinstated QAnon influencer launched a conspiracy theory that left a company facing false pedophilia accusations
A QAnon influencer who was reinstated on Twitter by Elon Musk caused a baseless conspiracy theory linking Huggies diapers and pedophilia to gain traction online, forcing the diaper company to publicly rebut it. It is yet another case of Musk’s decision-making with Twitter harming the platform’s user base.
The QAnon influencer known online as “Vincent Kennedy” was banned from Twitter following the January 6, 2021, insurrection. However, the account was reinstated in January under Musk and received a checkmark by subscribing to Twitter Blue — meaning Twitter is making money off of the account and actively amplifying its posts.
On March 20, Kennedy tweeted, “Once you truly awake you ain’t going back to sleep,” along with an image of a Huggies’ brand diaper with the Simba character from Disney’s The Lion King. The diaper also depicted circular and triangle-like symbols, which Kennedy highlighted. While it was not explicit, Kennedy’s tweet was almost certainly referring to a claim that these symbols are a signal for supporting pedophilia — a key claim behind the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory. Subsequently, the tweet earned tens of thousands of retweets and likes, and Twitter’s view count listed the tweet as having millions of views.
The tweet and the related conspiracy theory about Huggies made its way elsewhere online, with fellow conspiracy theorists and QAnon supporters claiming there was “FBI Peadophile Symbolism spotted on Huggies' Disney Nappies/Diapers,” that the diapers had “Pedophile designs,” and that Huggies may even be “breaking the law” by using the symbols. Videos on TikTok pushing the conspiracy theory gained particular traction, getting nearly 1 million combined views.
https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/elo...ft-company
A QAnon influencer who was reinstated on Twitter by Elon Musk caused a baseless conspiracy theory linking Huggies diapers and pedophilia to gain traction online, forcing the diaper company to publicly rebut it. It is yet another case of Musk’s decision-making with Twitter harming the platform’s user base.
The QAnon influencer known online as “Vincent Kennedy” was banned from Twitter following the January 6, 2021, insurrection. However, the account was reinstated in January under Musk and received a checkmark by subscribing to Twitter Blue — meaning Twitter is making money off of the account and actively amplifying its posts.
On March 20, Kennedy tweeted, “Once you truly awake you ain’t going back to sleep,” along with an image of a Huggies’ brand diaper with the Simba character from Disney’s The Lion King. The diaper also depicted circular and triangle-like symbols, which Kennedy highlighted. While it was not explicit, Kennedy’s tweet was almost certainly referring to a claim that these symbols are a signal for supporting pedophilia — a key claim behind the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory. Subsequently, the tweet earned tens of thousands of retweets and likes, and Twitter’s view count listed the tweet as having millions of views.
The tweet and the related conspiracy theory about Huggies made its way elsewhere online, with fellow conspiracy theorists and QAnon supporters claiming there was “FBI Peadophile Symbolism spotted on Huggies' Disney Nappies/Diapers,” that the diapers had “Pedophile designs,” and that Huggies may even be “breaking the law” by using the symbols. Videos on TikTok pushing the conspiracy theory gained particular traction, getting nearly 1 million combined views.
https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/elo...ft-company
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
