No abstract

When looking at the recent social-political history of America it is difficult to avoid references to QAnon, a widespread, conservative-leaning conspiracy that amalgamates numerous conspiracies into a single movement. Central to the movement’s growth has been a moral panic around child sex trafficking that has served as a gateway for new adherents to become exposed to broader QAnon rhetoric. QAnon’s co-optation of the #SaveTheChildren (#STC) movement exemplifies this networked moral panic and has played a major role in facilitating the spread of misinformation under a banner of moral authority. This paper explores the proponents of #SaveTheChildren on social media platform Instagram—paying particular attention to their motivations, tactics and desired outcomes—in order to explore how networked social movements build knowledge and organize in spaces that are vulnerable to the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Research is drawn from an inductive thematic analysis of 1,400 Instagram posts related to the #SaveTheChildren movement across 2020. Analysis illuminates how the #SaveTheChildren movement is defined more as an identity based, social-political movement rooted in moral panic— rather than one focused on truly supporting human rights. Our analysis illuminates how networked moral panics— facilitated by the affordances and tactics of social media —can bring together disparate communities to spread misinformation under the guise of activism.

Individuals seeking out information about human-trafficking and anti-trafficking efforts are increasingly turning to social media as an informational source. However, a lack of traditional informational gatekeeping online has allowed for the rapid proliferation of misinformation via social media. This has been clearly evidenced within the realm of human trafficking by the spread of conspiracy theories instigated by the QAnon-led campaign #SaveTheChildren. Through in-depth interviews with members of the public and professionals involved in anti-trafficking activism we explore how individuals find trustworthy information about human trafficking in light of the public spread of misinformation. Our findings highlight the centrality of distrust as a driving force behind information-seeking on social media. Further, we highlight the tensions that arise from using social media as a primary resource within anti-trafficking education and the limitations of interventions to slow the spread of trafficking-related misinformation. This work provides contextual knowledge for researchers looking to better understand the real-world impacts of misinformation and looking to design better interventions into digital information disorder.