From “Nasa Lies” to “Reptilian Eyes”: Mapping Communication About 10 Conspiracy Theories, Their Communities, and Main Propagators on Twitter

Mike S Schäfer,Jing Zeng,Daniela Mahl

doi:10.1177/20563051211017482

Abstract

In recent years, conspiracy theories have pervaded mainstream discourse. Social media, in particular, reinforce their visibility and propagation. However, most prior studies on the dissemination of conspiracy theories in digital environments have focused on individual cases or conspiracy theories as a generic phenomenon. Our research addresses this gap by comparing the 10 most prominent conspiracy theories on Twitter, the communities supporting them, and their main propagators. Drawing on a dataset of 106,807 tweets published over 6 weeks from 2018 to 2019, we combine large-scale network analysis and in-depth qualitative analysis of user profiles. Our findings illustrate which conspiracy theories are prevalent on Twitter, and how different conspiracy theories are separated or interconnected within communities. In addition, our study provides empirical support for previous assertions that extremist accounts are being “deplatformed” by leading social media companies. We also discuss how the implications of these findings elucidate the role of societal and political contexts in propagating conspiracy theories on social media.

Highlights

During the COVID-19 pandemic and the “infodemic” (World Health Organization, 2020) surrounding it, numerous conspiracy theories about the origin and scale of the virus have been spreading on social and news media
Drawing on the conceptual elements of definitions that seem most established in the field, we define conspiracy theories as proposed explanations for events or practices that refute established accounts and instead refer to secret machinations of influential people or institutions acting for their own benefit (e.g., Coady, 2003; Goertzel, 1994; Hofstadter, 1965; Keeley, 1999; Uscinski & Parent, 2014)
In line with previous research on deplatforming on social media (e.g., Rogers, 2020), our results show that Twitter has been suspending influential propagators within conspiracy theory communities and especially within communities dominated by Trump and QAnon supporters

Summary

Introduction

During the COVID-19 pandemic and the “infodemic” (World Health Organization, 2020) surrounding it, numerous conspiracy theories about the origin and scale of the virus have been spreading on social and news media. They claim, for instance, that the virus is a bioweapon developed by the Chinese government (Sardarizadeh & Robinson, 2020), or that Bill Gates is using the pandemic to force mass vaccination on the population (Huddleston, 2020). Based on the widespread existence of conspiracy theories and the increased attention they have been receiving on social media, scholarly efforts to understand the phenomenon have gained momentum (for overviews, see Butter & Knight, 2017; Douglas et al, 2019). Drawing on the conceptual elements of definitions that seem most established in the field, we define conspiracy theories as proposed explanations for events or practices that refute established accounts and instead refer to secret machinations of influential people or institutions acting for their own benefit (e.g., Coady, 2003; Goertzel, 1994; Hofstadter, 1965; Keeley, 1999; Uscinski & Parent, 2014)

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