(Un)masked antisemitic conspiracy theories: Analysing the presence of far-right narratives in Italian anti-vax echo-chambers on Twitter during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 pandemic have emerged as soon as the global health emergency started. They have found fertile ground on social media networks as they facilitated their proliferation enabled by their filtering, echo- chambers, and polarisation mechanisms. Although social media's role as amplifier of emotionally charged conspiracy theories is undeniable, there are several, complementing factors, that have led people to spread them. Notably, the socio-technological aspect of our modern post-truth era, the structure of the web 2.0 and the consequent cybercascades of mis/disinformation feature among the most relevant drivers into the dissemination of conspiracy theories online. The resulting uncertainty and mass anxiety caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, aggravated by these factors, have been exploited by extremist organisations to normalise hatred towards what is considered to be the antagonistic Other. This has been particularly evinced by far-right organisations, which have historically targeted Jews and have adapted their core antisemitic narratives to Covid-19 conspiracy theories. Crucially, the New World Order and the Great Reset have been particularly successful conspiracy theories to spread antisemitic narratives, though in the concealed form of anti-establishment and...