20th Anniversary Of 9/11 Attacks: Know About Popular Conspiracy Theories That Continue To Spread

With the rise of social media, it became easier for conspiracy theories to be spread to a larger audience. Here are some popular theories about the 9/11 attacks.

Smoke rises from the burning twin towers of the World Trade Center after hijacked planes crashed into the towers on September 11, 2001 in New York City. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

New Delhi: Almost every event in history has had its share of conspiracies theories, so it is not surprising that tragic big events like the 9/11 attacks had various conspiracy theorists churning out "truths" within a few hours of its occurrence. 

With the rise of social media, it became easier for conspiracy theories to be spread to a larger audience. 

Here are some of the famous theories surrounding the 9/11 attacks:

The Bomb Theory: Many people believed that the planes could not be enough for bringing down the twin towers. A claim widely shared online, "Jet fuel cannot melt steel beams," suggests the World Trade Center's Twin Towers were demolished by explosives. According to this theory, explosives were planted across both buildings which caused a controlled demolition. This theory alluded that 9/11 was an inside job.

This was later debunked by investigators, the crashed planes considerably damaged support columns of both the towers and dislodged fire-proofing. The fires reached up to 1,000C in some areas, causing the steel beams to warp and the eventual collapse of the buildings, the official reports stated. 

Some claim the US government staged the attacks or knew of them in advance and allowed them. These falsehoods were more recently combined with the claim that the global elites plan to curtail civil liberties & facilitate the establishment of an authoritarian world government.

Inside job: The belief that 9/11 is an inside job was further strengthened by a video that shows a news correspondent during a live report, announcing the collapse of the World Trade center while it can be seen still standing. This video is often shared especially before the 9/11 anniversaries as evidence of the collusion of major media organizations.

Just before the live report, the Reuters news agency had mistakenly reported the collapse of the building, which was then picked up by CNN. Though Reuters later issued a correction, clips of the report continue to go viral even now especially nearer the anniversaries. 

Missiles: According to this theory, the hole left behind after the attack on the Pentagon was too small to be actually caused by a passenger airplane. Theorists say that US missiles were fired at the Pentagon suggesting that the US government was aware of the attack.

But the American Society of Civil Engineers in a report by Popular Mechanics magazine explained that the hole was caused due to one of the Boeing 757 wings hitting the building while the other hit the ground.

United Airlines Flight 93: This domestic flight which was hijacked by the Al-Queda terrorists crashed into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after passengers regained control of the plane. But according to conspiracy theorists, the plane was shot down by a white business jet. This jet was seen by many eye-witnesses.

However, the aviation authorities later explained that they had requested the jet which was flying in the area at the time to inspect the crash site.

Twenty years on, the skepticism and suspicion first revealed by 9/11 conspiracy theories has metastasized, spread by the internet and nurtured by pundits and politicians like Donald Trump.