'Lives are at risk:' Hillary Clinton blasts fake news

Hillary Clinton may have taken a few walks in the woods since her presidential election loss on Nov. 8, but she's also, apparently, kept pace with the news.

The former Democratic presidential nominee blasted what she called an "epidemic" of "fake news" as she paid tribute to retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

"It is now clear that so-called fake news can have real-world consequences," Clinton said. "This is not about politics or partisanship. Lives are at risk -- lives of ordinary people just trying to go about their days and do their jobs, contribute to their communities. It is a danger that must be addressed and addressed quickly."

Later, she added, "it is imperative that leaders in both the private and public sector step up to protect our democracy and innocent lives."

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Clinton's "real-world consequences" comment was likely a reference to a recent gunman incident at a Washington, D.C. pizza restaurant called Comet Ping Pong. A gunman barged into the pizzeria on Sunday and fired at least one shot into the ground. Following his arrest, he said he had driven from North Carolina after reading about a baseless conspiracy theory that tied the restaurant to a child sex-slave ring linked to Clinton. The conspiracy, called "pizzagate," has so far spawned threats to at least two pizza restaurants. Comet apparently became a target because the Clinton campaign had communicated with the restaurant about arranging a fundraiser there. The second restaurant, a Brooklyn pizzeria called Roberta's, has received threatening phone calls.

President Barack Obama also took aim at misinformation, disinformation and propaganda last month during a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"If we are not serious about facts, and what's true and what's not, and particularly in an age of social media where so many people are getting their information in sound bites and snippets off their phones, if we can’t discriminate between serious arguments and propaganda, then we have problems," he said.

Facebook has been at the epicenter of the furor surrounding fake news. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has not seemed convinced that the disinformation rampant on his social media platform is a huge problem, though Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg insisted on Thursday that the company is "working on it."