What is the cost of propaganda, misinformation and conspiracy theories? Democracy and public safety, to name just two things. The United States has received a stark lesson on how online propaganda and misinformation have an offline impact.
For weeks, US President Donald Trump has falsely claimed the November presidential election was rigged and that is why he was not re-elected. The president’s words have mirrored and fed conspiracy theories spread by followers of the QAnon movement.
While conspiracy theorists are often dismissed as “crazy people on social media,” QAnon adherents were among the individuals at the front line of the storming of Capitol Hill.
QAnon is a decentralised, ideologically motivated and violent extremist movement rooted in an unfounded conspiracy theory that a global “Deep State” cabal of satanic paedophile elites is responsible for all the evil in the world. Adherents of QAnon also believe that this same cabal is seeking to bring down…