Anyone on Twitter in the past 24 hours might have seen that Oprah Winfrey was trending. These days, when a celebrity winds up going viral on Twitter, it's usually bad news, but in the case of the beloved talk show host, it was actually because of fake news. A rumor was spreading that she was involved in a global child sex trafficking ring. Normally, something like this would just be written off as clearly untrue, but so many people were sharing the rumor that Oprah herself had to address it.
She took to Twitter to state, "Just got a phone call that my name is trending. And being trolled for some awful FAKE thing. It's NOT TRUE. Haven’t been raided, or arrested. Just sanitizing and self-distancing with the rest of the world. Stay safe everybody."
According to the Washington Post, the rumors started with QAnon, a group that often tries to spread conspiracy theories. They claimed the mogul was arrested in her Florida home and that property had been seized by law enforcement, who were also excavating her property for underground tunnels.
Celebrities were pretty disgusted that it spread at all, with director Ava DuVernay tweeting, "Trolls + bots began this disgusting rumor. Mean-spirited minds kept it going. Oprah has worked for decades on behalf of others. Given hundreds of millions to individuals + causes in need. Shared her own abuse as a child to help folks heal. Shame on all who participated in this."
Meanwhile, Andy Lassner, the Executive Producer of the Ellen DeGeneres Show, said, "The staggering amount of people believing a 100% fake story about Oprah doesn’t make me feel good about the chances of society continuing."
These days, Oprah is taking some down time after suffering a leg injury following a fall at the February 29th stop of her American 2020 Vision tour.
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