'Child Trafficking' Sting Video Turns Out To Be Toy Drive

"The Davenport Police Association is sponsoring and hosting the 22nd annual Christmas toy drive to support Family Resources Inc.," local news station KWQC reported on December 15. "The annual event raises money and collects new toys at Christmas for children involved in Family Resources Domestic Violence Shelters, Child Advocate programs (victims of sex assaults and other at-risk programs), and supports the Family Resources Adopt a Family Program."

I can't make out anything about the toy drive that would have led any reasonable person to conclude that this was a child trafficking sting. But this is how far down the trafficking hysteria rabbit hole Americans have gone: the mere fact of police next to a truck is enough to spawn human trafficking claims.

Despite the story's debunking, some commenters on Carter's page still refuse to let it go. "Do not gaslight yourself," one posted. "These companies do these types of things. Our world is darker and sicker than we know."

All sorts of wild and untrue stories circulate on social media, of course. But unfounded trafficking claims seem to be an especially potent and prolific genre of social media misinformation. And while it's tempting to simply chalk it up to gullibility, the power of sensational stories, and other individual factors, human trafficking panic wasn't produced in a vacuum.

Vice President Kamala Harris' claims about online sex trafficking (used to push for internet censorship and surveillance) and former/future President Donald Trump's claims about sex trafficking at the Southern border (used to push for tougher immigration restrictions and enforcement) are just two of many examples of how politicians have used the specter of human trafficking to push their preferred policies. And far from only spreading on social media, mainstream media trafficked in these myths repeatedly.

So when we see a whole lot of social media users willing to believe that a charity toy drive is a child trafficking sting, remember that what we're really looking at is the product of decades of political propaganda.