Christy Croft, a sex-trafficking survivor and activist, was scrolling through social media in July when they came across a debunked conspiracy theory claiming that the furniture company Wayfair was selling kidnapped children.
At the time, hundreds of thousands of people on social media were discussing the falsehood. Croft decided to look into the conspiracy theory after seeing that other survivors and fellow anti-trafficking professionals were criticizing it.
“I was appalled — and immediately frustrated with the really strong pushback I encountered with people when I tried to correct misinformation,” Croft told Insider.