Opinion The conspiracy pandemic
Why has coronavirus infected conspiracy theorists so badly, and how can we fight it? By
The Covid-19 pandemic has infected well over fourmillion people and killed at least 300,000. New Zealand may appear to be decisively heading in the right direction, but this isn’t the case globally and, as the pandemic worsens, the death toll rises, and the economic depression settles in, pandemic-related conspiracy theories will becomemore prevalent.
In the aftermath of events that shock the system, as Covid-19 has, it is natural to seek answers. It is the brain’s coping mechanism formaking sense of things. It is howwe as a species have developed over millennia to explain anything beyond our understanding. And it is there, when the dust is yet to settle, and emotions run high, that misinformation thrives.
This is the backdrop to upcoming elections in both the United States and New Zealand, and it means we must be much more vigilant about the information that is shared, regardless of how slick the packaging.
Policy decisions can always mean the difference between life and death, but this is especially true in a global pandemic. Many people have lost their incomes, daily routines, and sense of security, leaving us vulnerable for exploitation by peoplewho to peddle dishonest or inaccurate information in the name of truth.
Whenever there are shocking tragedies, conspiracy theorists jump to the fore. This has been the case in other high-profile events that have captured the news cycle. Take for example, the helicopter crash that resulted in the death of nine people, including basketball star Kobe Bryant. Before the flames had been doused, online trolls had manufactured theories on the cause of the crash.
Themost common theory was that Bryant was assassinated by someonewith ties tohillary and Bill Clinton. The evidence? A screenshot of a tweet sent from Bryant’s Twitter account saying: ‘‘I have information that will lead to the arrest of Hillary Clinton.’’ It was a fake, of course, a screenshot created onwebsites used to make do-it-yourself memes.
Another narrative that made the rounds was that Bryantwas taken out by big pharma based on an ongoing legal battle over the trademark of his nickname ‘‘The
Black Mamba’,’ which pitted him against a pharmaceutical company marketing diet pills under the same name. There are countless other theories, each more fantastic than the last.
The Kobe conspiracy encircled a small portion of dedicated fans or those who follow celebrities. Chances are, you have never heard these distorted versions of events.
However, the conspiracies regarding the current pandemic have reached a far larger portion of society.
Not everyone has the time to sift through an article and click on the links or annotations to see which sources are being cited, and forensically examine the contents of everything they see online.
But there is a lot we can do to counter misinformation in our communities and our politics, and there are productiveways to reach someone in your circle who keeps asking whether you have seen the video about how the virus is spread by 5G, or how it was made in a Chinese lab, or that it is bio-weapon for population control.
Many people absorbing and sharingmisinformation are doing so out of curiosity, rather than conviction, and the first group is much easier to reach than the ‘‘true believers’’. Empathy is key, as it is more effective to gently talk through why you may think the information they’ve been exposed to is incorrect, rather than a personal attack for being gullible or stupid.
It is worth taking the time to affirm that it is natural for people to have questions during times of crisis, and to see if you can steer your friend who is sharing coronavirus theories they found in ‘‘the explore section of Instagram’’ towards some more reputable and reliable sources, all of whom have made coverage of the coronavirus available free of charge.
The 26-minute Plandemic video is an alarming example of the high-stakes challenge of counteringmisinformation as coronavirus continues to be a disruptor.
The viral video put a discredited scientist, Judy Mikovits squarely in the spotlight. Her wild claims, including that masks ‘‘activate’’ the virus, and that Anthony Fauci, director of the American National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, personally tried to derail her work, have been broadly condemned and discredited.
However, that didn’t stop the clip from racking up more than eightmillion views before it was taken down by major social media outlets.
Analysis of the viewership data shows that the video appearedmost often in groups devoted to the Qanon conspiracy, anti-vaccine movement, and conspiracy theories in general. Mikovits has become a star in the far-right movement, gaining an army of Twitter followers, and being
presented as the academic face of the Reopen American movement.
Plandemic’s documentarystyle footage, warm, trustworthy narrator, and careful editing gives the impression of a being something akin to a thorough 60
Minutes investigation. Indeed, many of the videos circulating around conspiracy theorist forums follow the same format: assert that they are presenting the truth, provide little evidence apart from blatant lies, or quote-mining, where a line is stripped of its context to the point where it can be repurposed to make a completely new point, and then they cover their tracks with references to free speech or assertions that, if the video is taken down, it is just further proof that elites do not want the truth to get out.
And it is an approach that is gaining traction. A survey of 2000 Americans (by Harvard