Abstract
This chapter examines the production and circulation of anti-COVID-19 restrictions narratives in the Canadian far-right populist and conspiracist nebula. To do so, we use concepts such as virality, “microcelebrity”, influence, media practices, and Actor-Network Theory. Based on material collected on Twitter (from activists living in the Province of Quebec, Canada), it particularly focuses on the empowerment of “ordinary citizens” opposed to designated corrupted elites. In so doing, the chapter contributes to deconstruct the far-right and conspiracist media ecosystem involved in the production, diffusion, and exploitation of post-truth theories. It reveals that digital tools play a crucial role in shaping such theories and shows how the technical environment enables, but also constraints activists and the discourses they produce. In so doing, this chapter also shows the emergence of perverse effects to the use of Twitter in the production and dissemination of a narrative opposed to the restrictive measures deployed by the authorities. If the main activists of the tweetosphere try to produce an alternative and populist discourse in the first place, this discourse tends to lack uniformity and clarity. It adds more confusion in the minds of its audience, thus affecting the preeminent objective of its promoters.
“We Are the News Now” (#100_III).
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Notes
- 1.
According to Michael Barkun, conspiracism is a system of beliefs that refers to three main ideas: (1) nothing happens by accident; (2) nothing is at it seems; (3) everything is connected (Barkun, 2003).
- 2.
Bots, according to a recent study by Ferrara (2020), play a crucial role in promoting political conspiracies in the US, although their role on Twitter seems to be more focused on public health issues.
- 3.
To identify information from Twitter, I, II, or III is used to refer to the main themes (I = COVID-19; II = denouncing, and III = searching for influence on social media). The # indicates the number of the tweet, so #1_I refers to the first tweet in the category “COVID-19”. All tweets have been translated as is by the authors of the chapter.
- 4.
Roxham is on the border between the US and Quebec and is believed to allow easy passage to migrants between the US and Canada.
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Tanner, S., Campana, A. (2022). “We Are the News Now”: The Role of Networked Conspiracy and the Quebec “Tweetosphere” in Shaping the Narrative Around the Anti-COVID-19 Restrictions. In: Perry, B., Gruenewald, J., Scrivens, R. (eds) Right-Wing Extremism in Canada and the United States . Palgrave Hate Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99804-2_7
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