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. @AlbertYZhang and I looked into a conspiracy theory involving Bill Gates, microchips, vaccines and the Mark of the Beast, as a case study for how conspiratorial narratives are proliferating online during the COVID-19 crisis. Here's what we found: https://www.aspi.org.au/report/covid-19-disinformation
The ID2020 conspiracy theory is (roughly) that Bill Gates and the non-profit ID2020 initiative are involved in an effort to use mandatory vaccines as a cover for implanting tracking microchips which may or may not be linked to Satan. So! Moving on...
We found that overall social media activity relating to ID2020 in 2019 was extremely low, but that conspiracy-related activity made up a high proportion of that engagement. These highly engaged users appear to have helped generate content and shape engagement algorithms.
This meant that when the pandemic struck, algorithms played a role in cross-propagating the ID2020 conspiracy to new audiences. In this conspiracy Youtube video, you can see Google recommending the 'mark of the beast' conspiracy to someone who is already an anti-vaxxer.
We also found that conspiracy theorists often used legitimate content and media reporting, presented in conspiratorial frames. This real media article, for example, was widely shared in connection to the conspiracy.
The effect of this is twofold: real reporting makes the conspiracy seem more legitimate, and it also makes it more difficult for social media platforms to moderate.
This particular article was widely shared across Facebook, Twitter, and to a lesser extent Reddit and Instagram.
We found that established conspiracy communities, especially anti-vaxxers and to a lesser extent QAnon, played a major role in accelerating the spread of the ID2020 conspiracy, beginning around mid-March 2020.
The international spread of the conspiracy allowed different localised variants to develop. These variants are mutually reinforcing; they draw on each others' narrative elements as 'proof' of the overall conspiracy.
ID2020 conspiracies have been particularly successful in Africa, in part due to the prominent involvement of the Gates Foundation in vaccination programs.
These local conspiracy narratives are mutually reinforcing with conspiracy variants in other regions. An Italian MP who called for Gates to be arrested drew on the Gates Foundation's supposed crimes in Africa, and this was then picked up by conspiracy actors in African countries.
This was not intended to be a comprehensive exploration of all Bill Gates-linked conspiracies, but even this one small variant turned up so many interesting insights. You can read the full report here: https://www.aspi.org.au/report/covid-19-disinformation
