How Italian QAnon supporters designed a multilayered “infrastructure of disinformation” across multiple social media platforms, messaging apps, online forums and alternative media channels?
Scientific research by Irene Pasquetto (School of Information University of Michigan), Alberto F. Olivieri, (School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam), Costanza Sciubba Caniglia (Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review), Alessandra Spada (Catchy), and Gianni Riotta, director of Luiss Data Lab, shows how hate spreads in digital society using traditional media as a stepping stone.
What is QAnon?
QAnon is a wide-ranging, conspiracy theory built on “Q Drops”, short posts published on 4Chan – an anonymous English-language imageboard website – by an unknown individual, named “Q”.
According to the QAnon conspiracy, former President of the United States Donald Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping pedophiles in government, business, and the media.
QAnon started appearing in Italian digital media in 2018. Due to the Covid-19 emergency, the network of conspiracists and followers of Q has rapidly increased.
QAnon and disinformation: what the study shows
The research is built from sociotechnical studies of disinformation and of information infrastructures.
Examining disinformation from an infrastructural lens reveals how QAnon disinformation operations extend well-beyond the use of social media and the construction of false narratives. While QAnon conspiracy theories continue to evolve and adapt, the overarching (dis)information infrastructure through which “epistemic evidence” is constructed and constantly updated is rather stable and has increased in size and complexity over time.
Most importantly, the study also found that deplatforming is a time-sensitive effort.
The longer platforms wait to intervene, the harder it is to eradicate infrastructures as they develop new layers, get distributed across the Internet, and can rely on a critical mass of loyal followers.
Read the study:
