Pizzagate

"Is it true that Hillary Clinton operates a child pornography ring?"

This rumour was spread in 2016 by the QAnon movement, based on Hillary Clinton’s leaked emails during the presidential campaign. Conspiracy theorists interpreted certain words and phrases in them as code words for illegal child trafficking – such as ‘Hot Dog’ (= Boy?), ‘Pizza’ (= Young girl?), and ‘Cheese’ (= Orgy?). They believed that children were being held captive and sexually abused in the basement of the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington DC. Incited by this supposed scandal, an outraged supporter of the theory stormed the restaurant, heavily armed, intending to heroically free the children. However, just before his arrest, he discovered that the place did not even have a basement.