New report analyzes new and dangerous trends of disinformation in wake of U.S. Capitol attack
The aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol has led to the emergence of a new broad, anti-government conspiracy theory spreading on social media that is dovetailing with anti-vaccination and anti-public health extremism, according to a new report by Rutgers’ Miller Center for Community Protection and Resilience.
The report, by faculty and student researchers published as a joint project between the Miller Center and the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), chronicles the growth of a conspiracy theory about a coming “New World Order” through a totalitarian world government. Proponents of the new conspiracy theory are using social media as a mechanism to attach this belief system to other existing conspiracy theories in an effort to virally spread disinformation to the masses.