The popular Wayfair furniture store is at the center of the new viral conspiracy theory. Circulating in mid-July, the plot states that Wayfair’s serves as a front for human trafficking. This concept is derived from the exorbitant costs of probable reasonable products; other product names also raise eyebrows.
– Darrian (@darrianperdue) 10 July 2020
Of course, Wayfair vehemently denied any involvement in such a horrific crime and replied that this conspiracy was completely unfounded. In an email to Heavy, Wayfair wrote: “Of course, there is no fact in those claims. The products in question are industrial grade cabinets with exact prices.”
However, the products in question were temporarily removed from the online page after the theory began to circulate. In response, Wayfair said: “Recognizing that the images and descriptions provided by the supplier did not adequately reach the maximum price, we temporarily removed the products from the site to rename them and provide a more detailed description and images that faithfully illustrate the product to explain the price.”
Polaris, the organization guilty of the national hotline opposed to human trafficking, has won many calls detailing considerations about the intentions of the online furniture retailer. Polaris said they take those calls very seriously, however, the large number of them makes it harder for other people who are in fact at risk. The organization also noted that none of these reports contained data that had not yet gone viral, nor did they express data on the lack of children.
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) July 20, 2020
The conspiracy theory began on Reddit (as most do) but quickly went viral on Twitter. The cabinets were priced around $13,000- $14,000 but were seemingly underwhelming and basic cabinets. The names of these uber-expensive cabinets were also names of recently missing children — causing many people to believe that this was a front for human trafficking.
Snopes, a fact-checking website, noted that some of the unreferenced young men had also solved cases.
This conspiracy theory has meat but is demystified (for now!).
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