Conspiracy and the Digital Age: Social Media’s Threat to Democracy

Conspiracy discourse has been with our nation from the start. President George Washington had to deal with allegations of conspiracy put forward by Benjamin Franklin’s grandson. From that moment until today, conspiracy discourse has played a pivotal role in our public conversations about politics and culture. What is different now, however, is the ability for conspiracy theorists to utilize today’s powerful social media platforms such as Reddit, Instagram and TikTok to energize audiences into a more participatory model of generating conspiracies. These new conspiracy theories challenge our democratic institutions as they both encourage political participation while avoiding accountability for threats, violence, and attacks on democracy. This presentation will trace the recent history of conspiracy theories through an analysis of PizzaGate and QAnon with suggestions about how we might respond to these new threats from conspiracy discourse.