‘Racism is embedded in our society’: how attacks on immigrants in Ohio highlight US disinformation crisis

Donald Trump's pet eating' conspiracy shows how falsehoods driven by political bias are spread

In recent weeks, racist conspiracy theories about immigrants have dominated the election cycle. High-ranking Republicans have doubled down on unsubstantiated rumors about Black and brown migrants, tapping into anxieties that immigrants are responsible for increased crime in US cities.

During last week's presidential debate, Donald Trump echoed a baseless claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating - they're eating the pets of the people that live there," the Republican nominee said.