His associations with other powerful figures were heavily scrutinised, including friendships with the Clintons, Donald Trump, and accused pedophile Prince Andrew.
The conditions of his death are shrouded in mystery, as Epstein had previously attempted to commit suicide but had not been placed on suicide watch at the time of his death. On August 10 2019, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, while serving a prison sentence on charges of sex trafficking. Mainstream coverage of the case and later the meme in turn seeped into and influenced conspiratorial discourse, showing resonance across different online spheres. The first instances of the meme in both its non sequitur and bait-and-switch forms first appear on Reddit, which is where the bulk of memetic engagement is subequently observed. Its memetic transformation, however, occurred elsewhere before migrating back to 4chan. Our findings confirm that the conspiracy theory was conceived on 4chan, due to the initial post breaking the news before any mainstream outlet did.
Collecting and analyzing relevant data from both 4chan and Reddit, a timeline of events around the Epstein suicide case was established, as well as various data visualizations mapping its diffusion and transformation. The research found how, when, and where the fringe right-wing conspiracy theory surrounding Epstein's death transformed into a humorous memetic phrase in the mainstream.
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