7 days from fringe to mainstream: How a conspiracy theory ricocheted around the web

David Hogg, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School recorded video of his barricaded classmates during Wednesday's massacre in Parkland, Fla. One day later, he said, "this is completely unacceptable." LOS ANGELES — Just days after a deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school, conspiracy theorists were able to spin and then spread a demonstrably false tale on social media so that it dominated Internet searches and "trending" tabs.  The story — that some of the survivors of the high school massacre were actually so-called crisis actors — became so virulent that the teens had to share photos from their high school year-book to prove they were, in fact, the students whose classmates were. 

Source: Yahoo News