BREAKOUT SESSIONS 2
Panel 2A: Disinformation, misinformation and conspiracy
Chair: Dr Sara Correia-Hopkins (Swansea University)
Mapping and Mining Extreme Anti-West Social Media in West Africa: Between Legitimate Grievances and Foreign-produced Disinformation Prof Stephane Baele (Université Catholique de Louvain) Dr Lewys Brace (University of Exeter) Abstract: Over the past couple of years, West Africa has undergone significant political change including coups in Gabon, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Niger, serious social unrest in relatively stable states such as Senegal, and the spread of Islamist terrorism to traditionally peaceful regions such as the North of Benin. While this unravelling has its roots in the systemic shift of the international system, it is also fuelled by information operations on the internet that encourage anti-French – and more generally anti-Western – sentiment and promote a new version of pan-Africanism imbued with pro-Russian sympathy. With no scientific research published yet on this critical issue, this paper aims to better understand these social media activities, mapping their multiple dimensions in a rigorous empirical way in order to gain a solid analysis of both their structure (via network analysis) and their content (via Natural Language Processing). Snowballing from a seed list of influencers and news channels on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube with documented links to Russia (this list is compiled from a series of investigative journalism reports, and qualitatively checked and consolidated by the authors), the paper seeks to offer a nuanced account of the sources and expressions of radical ideas mixing legit- imate postcolonial grievances, aspirational pan-Africanist ideals, and foreign-produced Manichean disinformation. Seeing The Light: Tracing the Evolution of UK Conspiracy Narratives Darja Wischerath (University of Bath) Emily Godwin (University of Bath) Desislava Bocheva (University of Bath) [Co-authors: Alberto Arletti (University of Padua), Dr Brittany Davidson (University of Bath) & Dr Olivia Brown (University of Bath)] Abstract: The mainstreaming of conspiracy theories in recent years poses a new threat for harms to both individuals and society. In particular, conspiracy narratives can act as radicalisation multipliers in extremist environments and incite violence through their unique rhetorical structure. Prior research has explored the allure of conspiracy theories, yet there remains a significant gap in understanding the evolution of narratives as well as group mobilization within online-offline ecosystems. The Light is a self-published British “truthpaper” standing as a pivotal node in the UK conspiracy theory movement. Initially championing anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown positions during the COVID-19 pandemic, it continues to amplify anti-mainstream, polarising rhetoric. Online dissemination of this content is widespread alongside volunteer-led distribution of physical copies across the UK. We showcase a novel dataset comprising 37 issues of The Light and associated Telegram conversations from September 2020 to September 2023. Using computational methods and qualitative insights, we aim to 1) illuminate how narratives in The Light parallel real-world events and 2) explore the relationship between the paper and the Telegram channel for interaction in shaping conspiracy narratives and extreme rhetoric. We will make our dataset available for further research into the dynamics of UK conspiratorial discourse.
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