This is in conversation from Apple News. I'm Shemeita Basso. Today, how

conspiracy theories tear families apart.

Throughout history, conspiracy theories have always found an audience to appeal to,

riding along as a sort of sidecar to the truth.

But today, in the age of the internet, the scope, depth, and reach of them is more insidious

than ever before.

One of our most gripping and dangerous modern conspiracy theories comes from Qenon.

It centers on the false belief that a cabal of so-called elites

are operating a global child sex trafficking ring and conspiring against former President Donald Trump.

For a while reporter Jesslyn Cook had only experienced QAnon as an online phenomenon,

but in August of 2020, she attended a rally.

There were close to a thousand people marching down Hollywood Boulevard,

waving these pizza gates signs, these Q&on flags,

they were chanting the Q&on slogan, where we go when, we go all.

And it was just stunning to me because it felt like all of this online darkness that I'd

been reporting on had come to life.

Jesslin remembers seeing a young boy holding his father's hand.

The little kid was wearing a shirt about Adrenochrome,

this theory that the elites are not only trafficking children for sex, they're also

harvesting their blood and torturing them. And so this kid had this adjourned chrome shirt on that said,

I am not for sale.

Jesslyn is a tech reporter. She thinks about big tech and algorithms and what's in our

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