Published 12:23 IST, July 17th 2020
What happened with wayfair? Users accuse furniture-selling brand of child trafficking
Here are details about the conspiracy theories about Wayfair potentially being involved in child trafficking. Read on to know the details.
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Recently, Wayfair made it to headlines after netizens speculated if the brand was involved in human trafficking. On July 10, Wayfair started trending on Twitter and for all the wrong reasons. There have been various conspiracy theories posted by several netizens raising some questions about the same.
What happened with Wayfair?
Wayfair is an online home store that sells furniture and accessories. It was founded in the year 2002 and sells furniture pieces by other companies. A user posted a conspiracy theory that either the website or a potential third-party seller on the site is secretly a part of a child trafficking ring.
The theory started when a user on Reddit recently shed light on how overpriced certain furniture pieces were and unusual their names were. The screenshots posted by the user grabbed the attention of many people very quickly. The screenshots showed the names of certain products that had unusual names like Neriah and Samiyah.
Reportedly, the names of certain products were the same as several missing children. This led many users online to speculate certain horrific allegations. Users alleged that the company engaged in child trafficking and soon, social media picked the theory up.
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A user noted that utility closets and storage units for sale on the site were priced between $12,000 to $14,500. Netizens cited the prices as exorbitant for a utility closet. A media portal reported there were other users who searched for similar oddly priced products.
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A netizen noted that a set of pillows and a shower curtain listed at $9,999. When these sets were compared to similar items, they were priced only at $99.99. This further gave way to netizens thinking that it could mean that the increased cost was for a child.
However, a media portal reported that the claims are largely based on the idea that $10,000 is simply too expensive for a cabinet. Snopes further wrote that users wanted some sort of explanation for it. Snopes further reported that child trafficking seems a justification for the exorbitant cost.
However, this is not the first time Wayfair is being scrutinised for bad behaviour. In June 2019, employees of the company quit in protest of the company’s low-key support of the Trump government’s anti-migrant policy and detainment camps. Despite the employees protesting, Wayfair did not terminate the contract.
Here are tweets from netizens
Annnnnnnnnd this insane conspiracy theory already made it to TikTok and was the third video on my For You page just now 🙃 pic.twitter.com/kcUJE4LgUz
— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) July 10, 2020
Pizzagate/QAnon people have Wayfair trending today. They falsely claim price glitches on storage boxes prove that the company is trafficking children.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) July 10, 2020
This took off because of a post on Reddit's r/conspiracy subreddit yesterday, which is a clearinghouse for anonymous paranoia.
BREAKING NEWS CEO OF WAYFAIR HAS STEPPED DOWN #WayfairGate #wayfair #waytrafficking #HumanTrafficking @Wayfair pic.twitter.com/kkXBnWK0x2
— Rebecca Lemick (@RebeccaLemick) July 11, 2020
As the theory gained traction online, many Twitter users claimed that searching the stock keeping unit number (SKU) for each Wayfair product on a Russian search engine would bring up photos of children. Newsweek reported that is not the case. pic.twitter.com/aPO9e0cWWH
— MediaWise (@mediawise) July 10, 2020
This Wayfair child trafficking has me in a DEEP black hole pic.twitter.com/xzT5wdOv2j
— priscilla (@prizzkilla) July 10, 2020
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Image credits: Shutterstock
12:23 IST, July 17th 2020