A Jeffrey Epstein-Clinton Conspiracy Theory Was Trending -- And That's a Problem

On Wednesday night, NBC News reported that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who is currently awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy, was found injured and semi-conscious in his cell with two abrasions on his neck. While initial details were sketchy, sources at Metropolitan Correctional Center, the prison where Epstein was being held, suggested to NBC News that the injury was possibly the result of a failed suicide attempt, though investigators have not yet ruled out that another inmate may have assaulted him.

Yet on social media, one explanation alone dominated the conversation: the Clintons did it. On Thursday morning, #ClintonBodyCount was one of the top trending topics on Twitter, with many speculating that Epstein’s injuries were the result of an attempt on his life that was orchestrated by his former friends. A list circulating on social media of supposed Clinton “victims,” or people who had purportedly had some connection to Bill and/or Hillary Clinton who had died by suicide. A Daily Beast story published that morning reporting that Epstein had visited the White House a number of times in the early 1990s only added fuel to the fire.

Another rumor that spread on Twitter focused on former Westchester County police officer Nicholas Tartaglione, another MCC inmate convicted of having killed four men involved in a drug trafficking ring, who reportedly was brought in for questioning regarding Epstein’s injuries. According to the Rockland/Westchester Journal News, Tartaglione was found with a contraband mobile phone in his cell, leading many armchair sleuths to speculate as to why he had a phone and whether he had any involvement with the incident resulting in Epstein’s injuries; yet Tartaglione’s cell phone was discovered by guards on July 3rd, not on July 23rd, as many on social media have claimed. (Through his attorney, Tartaglione has denied any involvement.)

To be clear, there is absolutely zero evidence supporting any of these theories. Bill Clinton has not been accused of any sexual impropriety in relation to Epstein, and following Epstein’s arrest, he has distanced himself from the disgraced financier, releasing a statement saying he knew nothing of the allegations against him, and had not seen Epstein in over a decade. Yet as of Thursday afternoon, though by press time the #ClintonBodyCount hashtag no longer appeared to be trending, it had more than 87,000 tweets regurgitating the idea that the Clintons were responsible for not just the incident involving Epstein, but countless other “mysterious” deaths over the past few decades. And in the context of an ongoing conversation about how social media platforms are not doing enough to curb the spread of conspiracy theories and fake news — and that Twitter specifically has been accused of playing a particularly egregious role in spreading misinformation— this is not a particularly good look for the platform.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/jeffrey-epstein-clinton-conspiracy-theories-twitter-863446/