In 2020, people posted on 4chan, Twitter and then Reddit a theory that the Reddit account maxwellhill belongs to Ghislaine Maxwell, who at the time of writing has been charged with enticement of minors and sex trafficking of underage girls.
u/maxwellhill was the first account to receive 1 million "karma" (points) on Reddit, and at the time the conspiracy theory aired was in the top 10 accounts for karma received. The account is a moderator for a large number of subs (forums), and was for 14 years a regular poster on Reddit.
The conspiracy relies on circumstantial evidence:
- Maxwell's surname appears in the Reddit username
- maxwellhill, a prolific poster, has posting gaps at times when Maxwell is known or suspected to have been otherwise engaged
- maxwellhill says their birthday is in December, and after the 21st of December, which matches Maxwell's 25 December birthday.
- Most significantly, maxwellhill has not posted publicly since 1 July 2020. Maxwell was arrested on 2 July 2020.
However, media sources have been critical of the theory and another Reddit moderator has reportedly received private messages from maxwellhill after Maxwell's arrest.