It started with a whimper. At 16:42 Eastern Daylight Time on May 4, Kari shared a YouTube video to the Facebook page of the Upstate NY Ministry Network, a religious community “Connecting the Body of Christ” in Albany, New York State. The post received four comments and three shares. This was the first time the Plandemic conspiracy theory video was posted on Facebook. It would not be the last. This was a conspiracy theory that tore through the Facebook groups of America, powered not by anti-vaxxers or QAnon believers, but by members of Woodland Washington Community Chat, Concerned Residents Of Lawrence County Ohio, Nosey Asses of Branch County, What’s Up Oglethorpe County and You know You’re From Rancho Cucamonga if.
In little over a week the Plandemic video, a slick 26-minute production that makes wildly inaccurate claims about the coronavirus pandemic, received 2.5 million likes, comments and shares on Facebook. In that same time period, the video was viewed more than eight million times across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. This was – and still is – a viral hit unlike any other: one that has escaped the conspiracy theory echo chamber and exposed scores of people to dangerous, scientifically-baseless views. These views have been presented to them not by conspiracy theorist outliers, but by their neighbours and their friends. Now, such views being shared widely across social media risk undermining the response to the greatest health crisis in a generation – with potentially deadly consequences.
To track the spread of the Plandemic conspiracy theory, we used the CrowdTangle analytics tool to filter Facebook data based on a number of key terms, stripping out the conspiracy theorists to focus on how the video went viral in local community groups. We focussed on data from May 4 – the date the video was first uploaded, to May 7, covering the period in which the conspiracy theory went viral, but before Facebook and YouTube took concerted action to shut it down – and also before it was widely debunked. During this period, the video not only spread widely through conspiracy theory groups, but also through local communities that make up both the backbone of America and the backbone of American Facebook.
Group by group, the conspiracy theory seeped out. In Washington County PA What’s Going On!, a Facebook community of 51,773 people where local residents discuss “spaghetti dinners, events, bands performing, church gatherings, parades [and] road closings”, Lynn posted a link to the Plandemic video on May 6. It received 44 comments and 82 shares. “I said this all along,” reads one comment from Karen. “This is huge! It’s been a LONG time coming,” reads another comment from Heather. Other recent posts on the group include a notice about a playhouse, slide, water table and ping pong table available to pick up free of charge (at the time of writing, only the ping pong table remains unclaimed) and someone concerned about their missing doberman, Jethro (who returned home 12 hours later).
Across Facebook, the Plandemic video was shared on hundreds of community groups. Its appearance was often incongruous, akin to the conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. turning up uninvited to your village’s summer barbecue and telling everyone that vaccines are going to kill their children. The spread of the conspiracy theory on otherwise banal community groups reveals a perilous new reality: one where the coronavirus pandemic has taken dangerous, fringe views and planted them firmly in the minds of scores of ordinary people. And, as with the anti-vaccination movement, the Plandemic conspiracy theory has resonated particularly strongly amongst women – often young mothers.
As an analysis by social media researcher Erin Gallagher made clear, the spread of the Plandemic conspiracy theory was overwhelmingly powered by Facebook groups. Between May 5 and May 8, posts mentioning the term “Plandemic” received 1,517,896 interactions – likes, comments and shares – across Facebook. Driving the most shares were two QAnon Facebook groups, whose Plandemic posts collectively generated more than 3,700 shares. Up against the vast spread of the Plandemic on conspiracy theory groups and pages, its appearance on local, public community groups appears smallfry, but the numbers soon add up.
Concerned Residents Of Lawrence County Ohio: 51 likes, 109 comments, 67 shares; Pike County, GA - Community Page, 27 likes, 32 comments, 55 shares; Crawford County PA COVID-19 Information: 62 likes, 3 comments, 50 shares. Reedsburg Community Support Group and Information Sharing: 23 likes, 27 comments, 47 shares; CoVID-19 San Diego County, 20 likes, 140 comments, 39 shares. The list goes on. Across more than 500 public community groups on Facebook that we analysed, the Plandemic conspiracy theory received 20,000 likes and comments. From those groups, it was shared to other parts of Facebook more than 3,000 times.
To understand what’s really going on you need to zoom right in. On May 5, a day after the Plandemic conspiracy theory video was first put online, Katrina posted a version of it to Willie’s Hood County Buy Sale And Vent, a Facebook group for buying, selling and venting for residents of Hood County, Texas. “That is really selfish and narrow minded,” replied a woman called Laurie, the only person to criticise the video. Other members of the group piled on Laurie calling her “retarded”, “whiney” and “spineless” while also posting racist and sexist memes about Michelle Obama. Others were more measured in their response – but broadly supported the scientifically baseless claims it made. “Not surprising, youtube removed the video,” wrote a man called Ed, who mostly posts religious and anti-lockdown memes. “It’s very interesting to say the least,” wrote Mandy.
A similar drama played out across hundreds of community groups on Facebook. In Community of Maple Valley, WA, a public Facebook group with 19,546 members who “share promotions, events or general community information”, Linda questioned why the Plandemic video had been removed from YouTube. Her post on May 7 received 304 comments, a mix of people sharing other versions of the video and praising it for being “eye opening and mind blowing” and others decrying it as a dangerous conspiracy theory. In some ways, this was Facebook working: the online town square bustling with conversation. In other ways, it was Facebook failing: the online town square overrun by a dangerous conspiracy theory that was allowed to spread, relatively unchecked, for several days.
In group after group, the contrast between conspiracy theory and everyday banality is stark. On Valley Springs Bulletin Board(non-political / Non-BS), which has 5,272 members, the Plandemic video was surrounded by posts advertising baby goats for sale, a warning about escaped sheep and someone complaining about a long tailback of vehicles waiting to access the local lake. In Maumelle All About Community, a Facebook group of 6,337 people for “lost pet reconnections, city notices, crime watch, and conversations”, a post linking to the Plandemic video picked up 79 comments. Other recent posts include jokes about squirrels, questions about garbage collection days and a warning about substandard melons being sold at a local supermarket.
On the Oxford County Coronavirus Help & Awareness Group, a “NON-Judgemental” Facebook group for residents of a town in Ontario, Canada, the Plandemic video was posted by Kayla, a “Professional Chef - Mom of 2 kiddos” who normally shares pictures of her garden and her children. “I urge everyone to set aside bias and preconceived notions,” she wrote. “And we aren’t talking Q- or 5 G or any other underground quote unquote ‘conspiracy theory’ here.” The post attracted 17 comments and likes and four shares. “Been removed from you tube...hmmm speaking of control!” replied Sarah, an administrative clerk who works for a local private investigator firm. “Guess YouTube only likes lies and Truth gets quickly removed. They want to keep instilling fear in people,” wrote Kelly, a marketing consultant.
Sandwiched between the conspiracy theorists of QAnon and the yard sales of the Noosa Community Notice Board, the conspiracy theory was also widely shared on anti-lockdown public Facebook groups. From Reopen Alabama (33,710 members) to ReOpen California (11,100 members), the Plandemic video generated more than 16,500 comments and likes and over 10,000 shares from anti-lockdown groups between May 4 and May 7. In the “reopen” movement, which in some instances has links to the alt-right, conspiracy theorists have found a mainstream ally and one that has helped spread such lies wider than ever before.
The unprecedented success of the Plandemic video is part of a growing trend: of conspiracy theorists using the coronavirus pandemic to seek out ever larger audiences. For this to work, they have changed tack. While poorly-produced, hour-long rant videos and clumsy memes still persist, the Plandemic was notable for its higher production values. This added slickness is central to efforts to attract new believers. And it’s working.
A study from the University of Oxford published in the journal Psychological Medicine found that 60 per cent of British adults believe that, to some extent, the government is misleading the public about the cause of coronavirus. Further, 40 per cent believe the spread of the virus is a “deliberate attempt by powerful people” to gain control, with 20 per cent believing the virus is a hoax. In the US, a poll by YouGov found that half of Fox News viewers believe Bill Gates wants to use Covid-19 vaccines as a means to implant microchips in billions of people and monitor their movements. Across all Republican voters, 44 per cent believe the same baseless conspiracy theory.
For a conspiracy theory to go mainstream, context is just as important as content. People might be wary of believing or sharing posts from suspicious-looking Facebook pages, but will be more easily persuaded if something is posted by a friend on a local community group. According to analysis by The New York Times the Plandemic conspiracy theory was propelled across Facebook by a small clutch of major players: QAnon groups, a doctor, “reopen America” protest groups, an MMA fighter and anti-vaxxer campaigner, and a politician. This, combined with its spread across community groups, helped give legitimacy to a bizarre soup of lies.
Here, as with its spread through Facebook’s community groups, a dangerous conspiracy theory was normalised, helping it to spread ever further. Days later, a book by Judy Mikovits, star of the Plandemic conspiracy theory video, reached number one on Amazon’s best-seller list. On May 10, anti-lockdown protestors in Melbourne, Australia, broke into a chant of “arrest Bill Gates”. It was not an isolated incident. On Instagram, lifestyle influencers with millions of followers have also started peddling myriad conspiracy theories related to coronavirus. The mainstreaming of these lies has also led to telecoms engineers being shouted at, physically threatened and stabbed, with one engineer having to self-isolate with suspected coronavirus after a member of the public deliberately coughed on him.
On May 7, Facebook and YouTube started removing the Plandemic conspiracy theory from their platforms. But by then it was too late. As Zarine Kharazian from The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab found, the messaging around the Plandemic was designed for it to be censored – Mikovits, so the conspiracy theory went, had been silenced, now she was speaking out, but soon the big technology platforms would censor her again. The big technology platforms dutifully obliged, not by limiting the spread of the conspiracy theory but by simply deleting it.
This created the perfect storm – a Streisand effect that boosted the conspiracy theory still further. “People need to watch this before its removed,” wrote Phylicia when she shared the Plandemic video to Citizens for a Better Camden County, a public Facebook group for residents of Camden County, Missouri. This messaging – fine-tuned by conspiracy theorists, was parroted time and time again in community groups, with people often scrambling around to find other versions of the video and downloading it to share with friends. “YouTube keeps taking it down,” wrote Christy, a member of Citizens of George County, a public Facebook group for residents of George County, Mississippi with 5,970 members. “It’s time to wake up people.”
James Temperton is WIRED's digital editor. He tweets from @jtemperton
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
