Conspiracy theories, disinformation, coronavirus!

On Monday, two superior writings on conspiracy theories and false information appeared in the Estonian media. Delfi Fortes published a large article by Taavi Minnik about conspiracy theories and the coronavirus and ERR published Péter Krekó’s and Patrik Szicherle’s article on false information caused by the coronavirus.

In Minnik’s, story „Bioweapon or savings? Forte takes a look under the microscope at coronavirus conspirology“ says Valeri Solovei, Russia’s most well know political scientist and media expert, about the emergence of conspiracy theories. He also comments on the most common coronavirus conspiracy theories. According to Solovei, the conspiracy imagines itself as a completely dizzying or fantastic scheme. This scheme could be summarized as „the logic is solid but the starting point is idiotic“. When you get into the conspiracy theories, from the inside they seem non-contradictory, whole and even cunning. However, this is what should cause doubts in a normal person, because real life is never logical: when dealing with peoples’ actions there is little rationality.

Péter Krekó and Patrik Szicherle published an article in ERR’s culture section entitled „Going viral. Covid-19 in the ecosystem of disinformation“, in which the authors focus on false information campaigns caused by the spread of the coronavirus. The authors write: As the fear of the coronavirus spread around the world, disinformation campaigns became increasingly effective. In addition to click-to-play websites aimed at profiting from the spread of false and sensational information about the virus, geopolitical actors interested in sowing informational havoc have emerged on the scene. As one WHO official put it: „ the spreading infodemia“, is at least as dangerous as the virus itself, because misinformation spreads faster and more easily and can cause great harm.““

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