Wayfair, an American furniture and home goods retailer, garnered sudden attention across social media in 2020, particularly Twitter and Reddit, due to a conspiracy theory linking the company to child trafficking. The short-lived, well-delineated nature of this theory, coupled with its simultaneous emergence across multiple platforms, makes it a distinct case for studying the dynamics of online conspiracy development and spread. Using intermedia agenda-setting theory and computational approaches, we analyzed 1.2 million posts to explore cross-platform interactions. We examined how platform affordances shaped discourse and enabled the conspiracy’s dissemination. Reddit’s anonymity and detailed discussions sustained narratives, while Twitter amplified emotional content and broadened the audience. Hourly time-series analysis reveals a bidirectional influence: Reddit set thematic agendas that Twitter amplified, while Twitter’s emotional content shaped Reddit’s discussions. These findings shed light on the digital development of child abuse conspiracy theories while advancing the understudied aspects of intermedia agenda-setting literature.

中文翻译：

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需要一些组装：解读 Wayfair 阴谋论在 Reddit 和 Twitter 上的内容和传播

美国家具和家居用品零售商 Wayfair 于 2020 年在社交媒体上突然引起关注，尤其是 Twitter 和 Reddit，因为阴谋论将该公司与贩卖儿童联系起来。这一理论的短暂性、明确的性质，加上它在多个平台上同时出现，使其成为研究在线阴谋论发展和传播动态的独特案例。使用跨媒体议程设置理论和计算方法，我们分析了 120 万篇帖子，以探索跨平台交互。我们研究了平台可供性如何塑造话语并促进阴谋论的传播。Reddit 的匿名和详细的讨论维持了叙事，而 Twitter 放大了情感内容并扩大了受众。每小时时间序列分析揭示了双向影响：Reddit 设定了 Twitter 放大的主题议程，而 Twitter 的情感内容则塑造了 Reddit 的讨论。这些发现揭示了虐待儿童阴谋论的数字化发展，同时推进了跨媒体议程设置文献中研究不足的方面。