The assassination attempt on former president and current candidate Donald Trump sparked conspiracy theories from almost the moment the shots rang out. And in keeping with America’s toxic political polarization, the theories tended to fall across two different narratives, depending on your political persuasion. Claims that the shooting was staged or a hoax circulated among […]
It is arguably the most popular conspiracy theory book of the late 20th century. Yet Behold a Pale Horse is barely an actual book. It has no overarching narrative, no particular subject matter it focuses on, little prose to speak of, and is clearly plagiarized at points. Long revealed as a mashup of fake documents […]
A relentless Kremlin campaign of disinformation and destabilisation aimed at bringing Marine Le Pen’s pro-Putin extreme right party to power in France has failed - for the moment. The upset result in the snap legislative elections placing the Rassemblement National (RN) in third place among parliamentary parties is a significant blow to Russian interests. Even […]
As France prepares to vote in the snap legislative elections’ runoff, with Marine Le Pen’s extreme right, Putin-admiring movement pushing at the gates of power, conspiracy theories are running amok. A clutch of notorious propagators of narratives spanning pro-Kremlin conspiracies, anti-vax theories, climate change denial, QAnon, and Holocaust negation have already been elected outright in […]
‘Pogrom’, ‘raid’, ‘terrorist attack’: regardless of the name eventually agreed upon, the massacres of civilians perpetrated by Hamas and its allies in Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, will remain a significant event in the history of anti-Jewish violence. As American historian Deborah Lipstadt pointed out, it constitutes “the most lethal assault against Jews since […]
For most of his nearly four-decade career as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci quietly went about the task of leading the US effort to treat pandemics and outbreaks. Fauci wasn’t well known among the general public, and if he had any real public imprint, it was due […]
The French Embassy in South Africa has used humour and sarcasm to unmask a propaganda video fake being spread by official Moscow accounts purporting to feature a so-called “French soldier/mercenary” being “captured” in Ukraine by Russian forces. The video had been spread by conspiracist accounts claiming Western/Nato forces are already on the ground in Ukraine […]
While the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is one of the most influential and reprinted books in the history of 20th century conspiracy theories, its initial release went almost completely unnoticed. Plagiarized by an unknown author or authors from a variety of sources, the fiercely antisemitic document was first published in Russian in an […]
It only took a few minutes. Following the assassination attempt on Slovakia's pro-Russian Prime Minister Robert Fico on May 15, the Kremlin swiftly grabbed the opportunity to launch a massive online disinformation and destabilization campaign. The target? Ukraine, Slovakia’s neighboring country. Unfounded accusations blaming Kiev for the attack proliferated across a galaxy of pro-Moscow Telegram […]
Little in her past seemed to indicate that Eva Vlaardingerbroek would have so much influence at the age of only 27. Her career to date has been comprised of short-lived extremist engagements, from her membership of the far right Forum for Democracy and a brief love affair with party leader Thierry Baudet; her links to […]
