After the federal sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell began Nov. 29, some on Facebook claimed the chief executives of several American companies had resigned.
"On the FIRST day of the Ghislaine Maxwell trial," reads text in a Nov. 30 post from Head Nerds in Charge West, "the CEO of Twitter resigned; the CEO of Walmart resigned; the CEO of CNBC resigned."
The post accumulated more than 1,700 shares within one day. Similar claims have also been shared thousands of times on Facebook and Instagram, according to CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool.
"Interesting," reads the caption on another Facebook post with the text, which appears to stem from a Nov. 30 tweet. "Coincidences or....?
Maxwell's trial, in which she is accused of procuring underage girls to be sexually abused by disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, has inspired a rash of misleading claims online. This post is the latest example of such misinformation.
Jack Dorsey stepped down as Twitter's CEO on Nov. 29, but neither the CEO of Walmart nor the chairman of CNBC did the same. And there is no evidence Dorsey's resignation is related to Maxwell's trial.
USA TODAY reached out to social media users who shared the claim for comment.
Prior to his resignation, Dorsey, one of Twitter's co-founders, had served as the company's permanent CEO since October 2015....
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