Deep state phobia: Narrative convergence in coronavirus conspiracism on Instagram

Abstract

Recent scholarship has established that conspiracist narratives proliferated in mainstream online discourse during the coronavirus pandemic. This proliferation has been provocatively characterized as a 'conspiracy singularity' in which previously divergent conspiracy narratives converged into a single, overarching narrative. Yet while the idea of narrative convergence has long figured in conspiracy theory research, empirical evidence has been scarce. The present article aims to address this gap by means of an investigation of an archive containing over 470,000 conspiracy-related Instagram posts from 2020. Given the size and conceptual complexity of the dataset, the paper introduces a 'digital hermeneutics' approach, which combines data science methods with qualitative interpretation and theorization. Operating across three levels of observation (hashtag analysis, text analysis, and image analysis) we identify patterns of convergence among different conspiracy narratives (including anti-vax, QAnon, anti-5G, and 'The Great Reset') over the year 2020 as well as the apparent role of protagonists and antagonists (notably Donald Trump and Bill Gates) in creating connections. In interpreting these findings we focus on the concept of 'the Deep State' as a bridge between various conspiracist narratives, which seems to cut diagonally across political ideologies.

Meaningful disinformation: Narrative rituals and affective folktales

“…This adjustment has found right-wing one-world government conspiracy theorists finding common cause with left-wing anti-vaxxers via their shared antagonism toward figures like Bill Gates and the World Economic Forum. Reformist visions for a more sustainable form of global capitalism, such as the World Economic Forum's Great Reset proposal, are interpreted through this lens as sinister plans for “population control.” But whereas the ritual communication of QAnon arguably had “fictioning” at its core (Zeeuw and Gekker, 2023) to create alternative worlds based around far-fetched fantasies like “Pizzagate,” the Great Reset conspiracy theory is more difficult to untangle from legitimate critiques (Tuters and Willaert, 2022). As the critique of power often resorts to metaphors, efforts to fact-check post-QAnon conspiracy theorizing can backfire because metaphors cannot be fact-checked.…”

Conspiracy theories in digital environments: Moving the research field forward

“…the Chinese bioweapon theory vs. the ‘plandemic’ theory). The conceptual ambivalence and narrative convergence (see Tuters and Willaert 2022 , in this special issue) limit the application of computational techniques for automated content analysis. Correspondingly, a close qualitative reading and manual coding still play a dominant role in data analysis in existing studies of online conspiracy theories ( Mahl et al, 2022 ).…”

“…The third paper in this group – ‘Deep State Phobia: Narrative Convergence in Coronavirus Conspiracism on Instagram’– is from Tuters and Willaert (2022) . The authors combined big data analysis and qualitative interpretive techniques to study conspiratorial responses to the pandemic.…”

“…Findings from the study of about 500,000 Instagram posts reveal the convergence of varied conspiratorial narratives, with the two dominant examples emerging from the data being QAnon and the Great Reset conspiracy theories. Developing on Romele et al’s (2020) work, Tuters and Willaert (2022) showcase the application of ‘digital hermeneutics’ for researching conspiracy theories in digital environments. Although the case study itself is Anglo-American-centric, the paper offers a promising methodological approach to studying conspiracy theory with multimodal data in different social contexts.…”

“I Would Give Anything to Talk about Aliens Now”: QAnon Conspiracy Theories and the Creation of Cognitive Deviance

“… 1. Marc Tuters and Tom Willaert (2022) note that the concept of the Deep State first emerged in Turkey, as a term for a parallel government of bureaucrats and military officials that exert influence on the elected government. …”