The present Flat Earth heresy was conjured up by obama.
The premise might be wrong, what if the search was to have a big laugh?
Possibly Obama, but it is probable that the Flat Earth movement has been promoted by intelligence agencies to discredit people who disagree with the mainstream narrative. The same is possibly true about the “no moon landing” movement. I don’t doubt that there are sincere believers in these theories but they are so outlandish that people who believe in that can be lumped in with people who,for example, question the official narrative on the Kennedy assassination. I have read that the very term conspiracy theory was invented by the CIA in order to discredit people who did not believe that Oswald was the sole shooter in the Kennedy assassination.
It was actually promulgated by a goon from the NYT named Thomas Friedman in his first book, later writing a series of books. All are based on a leftist’s view of world policy, economics, communication, etc. Ubama and crew just gleamed onto it because the initial premise of the book’s name could be used to demean conservatives in yet another way. Those with whom Democrats disagree.