When the most notable victim of MAGA-approved conspiracy merchant Candace Owens announced a decision to fight back against her bullying, the response came in typical style. “Today I have been sued by the First Lady-Man of France,” announced a gleeful Owens, an unrepentant peddler of anti-women, gay and transgender slanders as well as Holocaust denial, […]
In an era of intense political polarization and weaponized narratives, there always seems to be a conspiracy du jour. From claims of a COVID-19 “plandemic” to endless speculation about Jeffrey Epstein, the frenzy often overshadows the enduring mother of all conspiracies: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. That narrative has recently gained new life—not from […]
On Tuesday, someone posted a video on X of a procession of crosses, with a caption reading, “Each cross represents a white farmer who was murdered in South Africa.” Elon Musk, South African by birth, shared the post, greatly expanding its visibility. The accusation of genocide being carried out against white farmers is either a […]
Russia’s long-term objective in the global information war has never been to convince the world of its version of events. Instead, it seeks to erode the very idea that objective truth exists. The Kremlin’s goal, as described by British journalist Peter Pomerantsev, is to create a world where “nothing is true and everything is possible.” This strategy […]
In the first edition of the DFRLab’s Narrative Warfare series, released on the first anniversary of Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we examined narratives that claimed Ukraine had developed biological weapons that were sponsored by the West. Now, on the third anniversary of the war, we reexamined this narrative and found the conspiracies and false […]
Conspiracy theories about vaccines. Secret meetings with dictators. An enemies list. President Donald Trump’ s most controversial Cabinet nominees — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel — flooded the zone Thursday in back-to-back-to-back confirmation hearings that were like nothing the Senate has seen in modern memory. The onslaught of claims, promises and testy exchanges did not occur in a political vacuum. The […]
Around half of adults across the world hold antisemitic beliefs and deny the historic facts of the Holocaust, according to the latest edition of the largest global study of anti-Jewish attitudes by the Anti-Defamation League, a New York-based advocacy group. The study surveyed more than 58,000 adults from 103 countries and territories representing 94% of […]
Frosty pine trees rim the edge of an icy lake. Snow is falling; spa music plays in the background. A gray-haired man with a pleasant face stands beside the lake. He begins to undress. He is going swimming, he explains, to demonstrate his faith, and his opposition to science, to technology, to modernity. “I don’t […]
Elon Musk has a new friend in British politics, in the form of Tommy Robinson, the far right grifter currently in jail for persistently spreading false information in violation of a court order. In the early hours of January 2, Musk tweeted “Free Tommy Robinson!” The world’s richest man went on to promote a video […]
