The aftermath of the 2020 US Presidential Election witnessed an unprecedented attack on the democratic values of the country through the violent insurrection at Capitol Hill on January 6th, 2021. The attack was fueled by the proliferation of conspiracy theories and misleading claims about the integrity of the election pushed by political elites and fringe communities on social media. In this study, we explore the evolution of fringe content and conspiracy theories on Twitter in the seven months leading up to the Capitol attack. We examine the suspicious coordinated activity carried out by users sharing fringe content, finding evidence of common adversarial manipulation techniques ranging from targeted amplification to manufactured consensus. Further, we map out the temporal evolution of, and the relationship between, fringe and conspiracy theories, which eventually coalesced into the rhetoric of a stolen election, with the hashtag #stopthesteal, alongside QAnon-related narratives. Our findings further highlight how social media platforms offer fertile ground for the widespread proliferation of conspiracies during major societal events, which can potentially lead to offline coordinated actions and organized violence.
翻译:2021年1月6日,美国国会山发生暴力叛乱,2020年美国总统大选后,美国民主价值观遭到史无前例的袭击,2021年1月6日美国国会山发生暴力叛乱,这起袭击事件因政治精英和边缘社区在社交媒体上对选举完整性的阴谋论和误导性主张的泛滥而加剧。在这项研究中,我们探讨了Twitter上边缘内容和阴谋论在国会袭击前七个月的演变情况。我们研究了分享边缘内容的用户所开展的可疑的协调活动,发现了从有针对性的增益到制造共识等常见的对抗操纵技术的证据。此外,我们绘制了边缘和阴谋论之间的时间演变和关系,这些理论最终与#stoptheal标签和与QAnonnitetal相关叙述一起,汇集了被盗选举的言论。我们的调查结果进一步强调了社会媒体平台如何为重大社会事件期间共谋的大规模扩散提供肥沃的土壤,这有可能导致离线协调行动和有组织的暴力。