Several [elected](https://tennesseestar.com/news/tennessee-democrats-mock-former-president-trump-wonder-if-apparent-assassination-attempt-was-staged/khousler/2024/07/14/) [officials](https://mynorthwest.com/3965997/rantz-mayor-aberdeen-donald-trump-assassination-attempt-staged/), along with [a top political aide](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/14/us/trump-shooting-news-biden/a-democratic-donor-draws-republican-ire-over-a-martyr-comment-about-trump-days-before-the-attack) for the billionaire Reid Hoffman, recently suggested, without proof, that former President Donald J. Trump may have staged an attempt to assassinate him in July. Mark Hamill, an actor and [advocate](https://www.nytimes.com/article/kamala-harris-celebrity-endorsements.html) for Democratic causes with more than five million followers on X, criticized a conservative policy proposal by [railing against ideas that were not part of the document.](https://www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/the-lefts-myths-about-project-2025) And last month, Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign [misleadingly suggested](https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.36EH4T8), in posts viewed millions of times, that Mr. Trump was confused about his whereabouts during a campaign stop. Her followers seized on the posts to claim that Mr. Trump was suffering from cognitive decline. For years, the discussion about misinformation online has focused on falsehoods circulating on the American right. But in recent weeks, a flurry of conspiracy theories and false narratives have also been swirling on the left. Some misinformation researchers are worried that the new spate of left-leaning conspiracy theories could further polarize political discourse before the November election. More than one-third of President Biden’s supporters believed the assassination attempt [may have been staged](https://pro.morningconsult.com/analysis/trump-assassination-attempt-polling), according to a poll in July by Morning Consult. “I don’t anticipate that we will collectively become less conspiratorial,” said [Adam Enders](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9307120/), an associate professor of political science at the University of Louisville. “If anything, the closer we get to Election Day, the more it’ll increase.” Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F03%2Ftechnology%2Fleft-wing-misinformation-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F03%2Ftechnology%2Fleft-wing-misinformation-conspiracy-theories.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F03%2Ftechnology%2Fleft-wing-misinformation-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F03%2Ftechnology%2Fleft-wing-misinformation-conspiracy-theories.html).

Shortly after generative artificial intelligence hit the mainstream, researchers warned that chatbots would create a [dire problem](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/technology/ai-chatbots-disinformation.html): As disinformation became easier to create, conspiracy theories would spread rampantly. Now, researchers wonder if chatbots might also offer a solution. [DebunkBot](https://www.debunkbot.com/conspiracies), an A.I. chatbot designed by researchers to “very effectively persuade” users to stop believing unfounded conspiracy theories, made significant and long-lasting progress at changing people’s convictions, according to a [study published on Thursday](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq1814) in the journal Science. Indeed, false theories are believed by [up to half of the American public](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ajps.12084) and can have damaging consequences, like [discouraging vaccinations](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/technology/covid-vaccines-misinformation.html) or [fueling discrimination](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/us/antisemitism-republicans-trump.html). The new findings challenge the widely held belief that facts and logic cannot combat conspiracy theories. The DebunkBot, built on the technology that underlies ChatGPT, may offer a practical way to channel facts. “The work does overturn a lot of how we thought about conspiracies,” said Gordon Pennycook, a psychology professor at Cornell University and author of the study. Until now, conventional wisdom held that once someone fell down the conspiratorial rabbit hole, no amount of arguing or explaining would pull that person out. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F12%2Fhealth%2Fchatbot-debunk-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F12%2Fhealth%2Fchatbot-debunk-conspiracy-theories.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F12%2Fhealth%2Fchatbot-debunk-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F09%2F12%2Fhealth%2Fchatbot-debunk-conspiracy-theories.html).

Whether it is the mistaken idea that the moon landings never happened or the false claim that Covid jabs contain microchips, conspiracy theories abound, [sometimes with dangerous consequences](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X22000823). Now researchers have found that such beliefs can be altered by a chat with artificial intelligence (AI). “Conventional wisdom will tell you that people who believe in conspiracy theories rarely, if ever, change their mind, especially according to evidence,” said Dr Thomas Costello, a co-author of the study from American University. That, he added, is thought to be down to people adopting such beliefs to meet various needs – such as a desire for control. However, the new study offers a different stance. “Our findings fundamentally challenge the view that evidence and arguments are of little use once someone has ‘gone down the rabbit hole’ and come to believe a conspiracy theory,” the team wrote. Crucially, the researchers said, the approach relies on an AI system that can draw on a vast array of information to produce conversations that encourage critical thinking and provide bespoke, fact-based counterarguments. “The AI knew in advance what the person believed and, because of that, it was able to tailor its persuasion to their precise belief system,” said Costello. [Writing in the journal Science](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq1814), Costello and colleagues reported how they carried out a series of experiments involving 2,190 participants with a belief in conspiracy theories. While the experiments varied slightly, all participants were asked to describe a particular conspiracy theory they believed and the evidence they thought supported it. This was then fed into [an AI system called “DebunkBot”](https://www.debunkbot.com/conspiracies). Participants were also asked to rate on a 100-point scale how true they thought the conspiracy theory was. They then knowingly undertook a three-round back-and-forth conversation with the AI system about their conspiracy theory or a non-conspiracy topic. Afterwards, participants once more rated how true they thought their conspiracy theory was. The results revealed those who discussed non-conspiracy topics only slightly lowered their “truth” rating afterwards. However, those who discussed their conspiracy theory with AI showed, on average, a 20% drop in their belief that it was true. The team said the effects appeared to hold for at least two months, while the approach worked for almost all types of conspiracy theory – although not those that were true. [skip past newsletter promotion](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/12/ai-can-change-belief-in-conspiracy-theories-study-finds#EmailSignup-skip-link-14) Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives **Privacy Notice:** Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our [Privacy Policy](https://www.theguardian.com/help/privacy-policy). We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google [Privacy Policy](https://policies.google.com/privacy) and [Terms of Service](https://policies.google.com/terms) apply. after newsletter promotion The researchers added that the size of the effect depended on factors including how important the belief was to the participant and their trust in AI. “About one in four people who began the experiment believing a conspiracy theory came out the other end without that belief,” said Costello. “In most cases, the AI can only chip away – making people a bit more sceptical and uncertain – but a select few were disabused of their conspiracy entirely.” The researchers added that reducing belief in one conspiracy theory appeared to reduce participants’ belief in other such ideas, at least to a small degree, while the approach could have applications in the real world – for example, AI could reply to posts relating to conspiracy theories on social media. Prof Sander van der Linden of the University of Cambridge, who was not involved in the work, questioned whether people would engage with such AI voluntarily in the real world. He also said it was unclear if similar results would be found if participants had chatted with an anonymous human, while there are also questions about how the AI was convincing conspiracy believers, given the system also uses strategies such as empathy and affirmation. But, he added: “Overall, it’s a really novel and potentially important finding and a nice illustration of how AI can be leveraged to fight misinformation.”

After each conversation, participants were asked the same rating questions. The researchers followed up with all the participants 10 days after the experiment, and then two months later, to assess whether their views had changed following the conversation with the AI bot. The participants reported a 20% reduction of belief in their chosen conspiracy theory on average, suggesting that talking to the bot had fundamentally changed some people’s minds. “Even in a lab setting, 20% is a large effect on changing people’s beliefs,” says Zhang. “It might be weaker in the real world, but even 10% or 5% would still be very substantial.” The authors sought to safeguard against AI models’ tendency to make up information—known as [hallucinating](https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/06/18/1093440/what-causes-ai-hallucinate-chatbots/)—by employing a professional fact-checker to evaluate the accuracy of 128 claims the AI had made. Of these, 99.2% were found to be true, while 0.8% were deemed misleading. None were found to be completely false. One explanation for this high degree of accuracy is that a lot has been written about conspiracy theories on the internet, making them very well represented in the model’s training data, says David G. Rand, a professor at MIT Sloan who also worked on the project. The adaptable nature of GPT-4 Turbo means it could easily be connected to different platforms for users to interact with in the future, he adds. “You could imagine just going to conspiracy forums and inviting people to do their own research by debating the chatbot,” he says. “Similarly, social media could be hooked up to LLMs to post corrective responses to people sharing conspiracy theories, or we could buy Google search ads against conspiracy-related search terms like ‘Deep State.’” The research upended the authors’ preconceived notions about how receptive people were to solid evidence debunking not only conspiracy theories, but also other beliefs that are not rooted in good-quality information, says Gordon Pennycook, an associate professor at Cornell University who also worked on the project. “People were remarkably responsive to evidence. And that’s really important,” he says. “Evidence does matter.”

He posits that there is a mole within Donald J. Trump’s Secret Service detail and warns that the former president should bolster his private security to “watch the watchers.” He says he is skeptical that the F.B.I. will “get to the bottom” of the first attempted assassination against Mr. Trump — and even if it does, he declares, “I don’t believe that they would give us the truth.” He has repeatedly raised the possibility that the shooter who tried to assassinate Mr. Trump in July at an open-air rally in Butler, Pa., did not act alone, and that the gunman who was arrested last month in what the F.B.I. described as a [second assassination attempt](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/us/politics/trump-shooting-golf-course.html) at his Florida golf course was an “asset” of a foreign adversary who was being “handled.” Representative Eli Crane, a first-term Republican from Arizona, has been everywhere that will have him, promoting conspiracy theories about the assassination attempts against Mr. Trump, despite all evidence that such theories are false. And far from sidelining or attempting to silence him, Republican leaders have given him a prominent platform to air his outlandish claims at the highest levels, lending credence to the conspiracy theories spread by him and others on the far right. Though he was left off a bipartisan House task force investigating the shooting, the Republican leaders of the panel invited him and Representative Cory Mills of Florida, another right-wing lawmaker who has embraced conspiracy theories about the first assassination attempt, to testify at their first public hearing. Mr. Mills is among the Republicans accompanying Mr. Trump to a rally in Butler on Saturday. Mr. Crane and Representative Cory Mills were both left off the bipartisan task force investigating the assassination attempts on former President Donald J. Trump, but were invited to testify at the first hearing last month. Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F05%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Feli-crane-trump-assassination-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F05%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Feli-crane-trump-assassination-conspiracy-theories.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F05%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Feli-crane-trump-assassination-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F05%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Feli-crane-trump-assassination-conspiracy-theories.html).

Far-right congresswoman [Marjorie Taylor Greene](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/marjorie-taylor-greene) is facing condemnation following several conspiratorial comments amid the devastation of Hurricane Helene that seemed to suggest she believed the US government can control the weather. In a post last week shared with her 1.2 million X followers, the US House representative from [Georgia](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/state-of-georgia) wrote: “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” Greene does not specify to whom “they” is referring, but she has [a history](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/26/republican-congresswoman-marjorie-taylor-greene-cpac) of promoting conspiracy theories around the federal government and other groups. She appeared to double down on these comments [with a post](https://x.com/mtgreenee/status/1842758787087704494) on Saturday, sharing a clip from a 2013 CBS News broadcast about experimental efforts to induce rain and lightning using lasers. “CBS, nine years ago, talked about lasers controlling the weather,” Greene wrote, apparently mistaking the year of the broadcast. Greene, who is no stranger to misinformation including once raising the idea of [Jewish space lasers being behind wildfire](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/marjorie-taylor-greene-qanon-wildfires-space-laser-rothschild-execute.html) outbreaks, was met with a wave of criticism for her blatantly false statements. The US government’s top disaster relief official [condemned on Sunday](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fema-chief-calls-false-claims-about-governments-helene-response-truly-dangerous) false claims made about Helene and its relief efforts, stating that such conspiracy theories, including those [made by Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/04/hurricane-helene-conspiracy-theories-election-misinformation) as he seeks a second presidency, are causing fear in people who need assistance and “demoralizing” the workers who are providing assistance. “It’s frankly ridiculous, and just plain false. This kind of rhetoric is not helpful to people,” said Deanne Criswell, who leads the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “It’s really a shame that we’re putting politics ahead of helping people, and that’s what we’re here to do.” Shawn Harris, who is running for Greene’s congressional seat, condemned the incumbent’s comments. “Marjorie Taylor Greene’s conspiracy theories are sickening, but she does it to distract from her failed effort to block crucial funding for Fema as Hurricane Helene was making landfall,” Harris wrote [in a post](https://x.com/ShawnForGeorgia/status/1842798730103206117) on X. Ryan Maue, a meteorologist and popular internet personality, seemed to [poke fun](https://x.com/RyanMaue/status/1842260476853370968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1842260476853370968%7Ctwgr%5E4be35b48afabd69588b967f2df387cd9dbb343ca%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nydailynews.com%2F2024%2F10%2F04%2Fmarjorie-taylor-greene-weather-tweet-conspiracy-theory%2F) at Greene’s comments while also factchecking her false claims. He suggested on X that some conspiracy theories turn out to be true – but added: “I can assure you that the [Hurricane Helene](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/hurricane-helene) weather modification theory is not one of them. “I would know, too.” In an email to his supporters, the Republican US senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina also seemed to condemn conspiracy theories about Hurricane Helene, though he did not specify the rightwing source of the theories. “The destruction caused by Helene is incomprehensible and has left many communities in western North Carolina absolutely devastated. The last thing that the victims of Helene need right now is political posturing, finger-pointing, or conspiracy theories that only hurt the response effort,” the [email stated](https://www.hendersonvillelightning.com/news/14434-tillis-warns-against-political-posturing-finger-pointing-conspiracy-theories.html). In an opinion piece on Saturday by its editorial board, North Carolina’s Charlotte Observer [criticized](https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article293483114.html#storylink=cpy) Trump because of his falsehoods over the government response to Helene, saying the state’s affected parts were “not a political football” and “not a campaign opportunity”. Criticism of Greene’s conspiracy theories even made it to the sports world, with the tennis legend Martina Navratilova using her platform to call out not only Greene as well as Trump’s running mate in November’s election, JD Vance. Vance had praised Greene at a rally just hours after she posted her conspiracies. “Marj is even more stupid than we thought possible,” [Navratilova](https://x.com/Martina/status/1842271267774136563?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1842271267774136563%7Ctwgr%5E1ec5dac5c515a2958540165f6f2833615cd2c723%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirstsportz.com%2Fmartina-navratilova-calls-out-republican-marjorie-taylor-greene-for-conspiracy-theory-about-hurricane-helene-and-jd-vance-for-supporting-her%2F) wrote on X. “And Vance is not stupid – he is just a cowardly sycophant. Which is actually worse.” Greene is also facing criticism for her hypocrisy of peddling conspiracy theories about Hurricane Helene while she was [photographed in attendance](https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-criticized-for-attending-football-game-as-hurricane-helene-batters-georgia/ss-AA1ruyOA?ocid=UE09DHP) at the University of Alabama’s home football game against the University of Georgia with Trump on 28 September. She reportedly left her state of Georgia to attend the game in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, while Helene devastated communities across the state she was elected to represent.

Wildly improbable conspiracy theories about Hurricanes Helene and Milton have spread largely unchecked on social media. The storms were engineered to clear the way for lithium mining. They were sent to help the Democrats in next month’s election. They were formed by weather-controlling lasers. The claims persist despite attempts by scientists and government officials to debunk them with evidence. They survive all calls to reason. The falsehoods, which have been circulating on X, TikTok, YouTube and other platforms, can resemble the conspiracy theories that plague modern American politics. [Prominent](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/30/us/politics/hurricane-helene-trump-harris.html) [figures](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/04/elon-musk-helene-aid-buttigieg.html) are pushing them, citing [unrelated, misleading or outdated evidence](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/us/politics/china-disinformation-ai.html). But the risks are often more immediate. Online climate-related conspiracy theories can quickly cause damage offline, [disrupting emergency communications and recovery efforts](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/us/hurricane-helene-north-carolina-misinformation.html). Officials have said this week that the disinformation about Hurricanes Helene and Milton was making relief workers a target, and the American Red Cross [warned](https://www.facebook.com/redcross/posts/931678405657079) that the outlandish claims could prevent survivors from seeking help. “If they’re telling you that the government is responsible for the disaster, that doesn’t help you at all in getting ready for it,” said Jose E. Ramirez-Marquez, an associate professor of systems engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology and a [co-author of a journal article](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212420924006113) this month on how hurricane-related information traveled through X. The increasing frequency and devastating power of major storms, heat waves, wildfires and other weather-related catastrophes tend to elicit an especially strong emotional response, allowing climate denialists, [lobbyists for the oil and gas industry](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/30/technology/cop28-climate-disinformation.html) and rumormongers to exploit people’s concern and confusion. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F10%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia%2Fhurricane-milton-helene-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F10%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia%2Fhurricane-milton-helene-conspiracy-theories.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F10%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia%2Fhurricane-milton-helene-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F10%2Fbusiness%2Fmedia%2Fhurricane-milton-helene-conspiracy-theories.html).

A meteorologist based in Washington, D.C., was accused of helping the government cover up manipulating a hurricane. In Houston, a forecaster was repeatedly told to “do research” into the weather’s supposed nefarious origins. And a meteorologist for a television station in Lansing, Mich., said she had received death threats. “Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes,” wrote the forecaster in Michigan, Katie Nickolaou, in a [social media post](https://x.com/weather_katie/status/1843836479103217844). “I can’t believe I just had to type that.” Meteorologists’ role of delivering lifesaving weather forecasts and explaining climate science sometimes makes them targets for harassment, and this kind of abuse has been happening for years, weather experts said. But amid the conspiracy theories and falsehoods that have spiraled online after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, they say the attacks and threats directed at them have reached new heights. “We’re all talking about how much more it’s ramped up,” said Marshall Shepherd, who is the director of the University of Georgia’s Atmospheric Sciences Program and a former president of the American Meteorological Society. There has been “a palpable difference in tone and aggression toward people in my field,” he said. Mr. Shepherd said the scrutiny meteorologists face is sharply amplified during major weather events, and the back-to-back hurricanes, combined with the political climate and second-guessing of weather experts, may have created conditions ripe for abuse. Helene made [landfall](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/29/us/helene-destruction-florida-north-carolina.html) as a Category 4 storm on Florida’s Gulf Coast in late September, tearing through the Southeast and becoming the deadliest storm to hit the U.S. mainland in nearly two decades. Just two weeks later, Milton rapidly strengthened and [struck](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/10/weather/hurricane-milton-damage-florida.html) Florida as a Category 3 storm, resulting in at least 14 deaths, serious flooding and the destruction of scores of homes. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F14%2Fus%2Fmeteorologists-threats-conspiracy-theories-hurricanes.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F14%2Fus%2Fmeteorologists-threats-conspiracy-theories-hurricanes.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F14%2Fus%2Fmeteorologists-threats-conspiracy-theories-hurricanes.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F14%2Fus%2Fmeteorologists-threats-conspiracy-theories-hurricanes.html).

It has been nearly four years since a parade of judges dismissed wild claims from Donald J. Trump and his associates about hacked election machines and a year and a half since a leading machine company obtained a $787.5 million settlement from Fox News over the debunked conspiracy theories. But Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and his closest allies are again trotting out the theories as part of a late-campaign strategy to assert that this year’s election is rigged — although this time Mr. Trump’s campaign appears to be largely acting behind the scenes. The theories are rampant on social media and widely embraced by activists. They have frequently shown up in [the blitz of lawsuits that Republicans have filed](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/29/us/politics/trump-2024-presidential-campaign-election-lawsuits.html) in the run-up to the election, including a Georgia lawsuit that a judge dismissed this month, calling the security concerns about voting machines raised in the suit “purely hypothetical.” Mr. Trump’s name was not on the suit, nor was the Republican National Committee’s. But text messages reviewed by The New York Times suggest that the former president’s top aides were behind it. The lawsuit was filed by a county Republican Party only after the state Republican Party in Georgia refused, despite requests from “Trump inner circle/high up in RNC,” Alex B. Kaufman, the state party’s general counsel, wrote in a text to another Republican official last month. “We had immense pressure from above and below to bring this, and said absolutely not,” he added in another message. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F23%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-voting-machine-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F23%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-voting-machine-conspiracy-theories.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F23%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-voting-machine-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F10%2F23%2Fus%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-voting-machine-conspiracy-theories.html).

Nov 6, 2024 5:26 PM Conspiracy theories about missing votes—which are not, in fact, missing—and something being “not right” are being spread widely on X in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory.  A woman wearing a Vote t-shirt prepares mail in ballots to be counted. Municipal Elections in Pennsylvania had a low turn out. Mail in ballots were counted throughout the day.Photograph: Aimee Dilger/AP Photo It took just minutes for the conspiracy theories about the 2024 US presidential election to [flood Elon Musk’s X platform](https://www.wired.com/story/election-fraud-conspiracies-flooding-social-media/) after Donald Trump was [announced as the winner](https://www.wired.com/story/election-2024-donald-trump-win/) in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The number of posts casting doubt on the election results and calling for a recount exploded on Wednesday morning, according to data from research company PeakMetrics. At noon Eastern time, posts on centibillionaire Elon Musk’s X platform peaked at 94,000 posts per hour. Many of the posts received significant amplification on X, with numerous posts reviewed by WIRED receiving more than 1 million views. “How can we have had record turnout and twenty million fewer votes cast nationally?” author John Pavlovitz wrote in a post viewed 5.3 million times. Gordon Crovitz, the CEO of NewsGuard, told WIRED that the term “Trump cheated” was trending on X on Wednesday morning. “There are 92,100 mentions of ‘Trump cheated’ on X since midnight,” Crovitz said. The exact details of the conspiracy theories are still being ironed out by those promoting them, but for the Harris supporters sharing them, her loss was reason enough to indulge in pushing baseless disinformation about the election being stolen. Meanwhile, [the massive pro-Trump election denial movement](https://www.wired.com/story/election-denial-groups-november-2024/) that sprung up in the wake of the 2020 election remained virtually silent on Wednesday morning, in comparison to the [flood of content](https://www.wired.com/story/election-fraud-conspiracies-flooding-social-media/) it shared in the days and weeks leading up to the election. “It doesn't matter whether baseless allegations about voting irregularities come from the right or the left,” says Nina Jankowicz, the former Biden administration disinformation czar who is now CEO of the American Sunlight Project. “The impact on our system of these lies is the same: People will end up trusting the infrastructure of democracy less, setting us up for more disinformation and disengagement. These drop-offs in trust take decades to undo. Take a look at countries in Eastern Europe that have been attempting to rebuild trust in the system since the ‘90s. We should all be wary of these allegations, no matter their source.” The posts calling for a recount used a variety of hashtags including #donotconcedekamala and phrases like “math ain’t mathing.” Many of them contained vague claims that “something is very off.” The one specific claim being made by many of these accounts suggests that there are 20 million “missing votes.” While at publication time the Associated Press’ vote count was indeed 16 million votes lower than that for the 2020 election, the explanation is trivially simple: The entirety of the vote hasn’t been tabulated yet. “Election denial is anti-democratic, whether it comes from the left or the right,” David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, wrote on X. “No, 20 million votes aren’t missing. Votes are still being counted in many states, including millions in CA alone. Number of votes in 2024 very close to 2020, when all are reported “ Posts relating to these conspiracy theories began to gain traction around 2 am Eastern, PeakMetrics data shows, which coincides roughly with the time the election was called for Trump—but even as Americans went to bed, the number of posts did not decline. “By 8 am ET, the number of posts per hour had surged to 31,991,” PeakMetrics wrote in an analysis shared with WIRED. “There was perhaps a surprising lack of overnight drop-off in posts from 2 am to 7 am ET—when typically posts would decline as the US hits sleeping hours. The steady increase in posts on the Kamala recount/missing votes narrative throughout the overnight hours may simply reflect the intensity of this discussion—or may point to inauthentic or automated posting behavior.” Unlike the election denial movement in 2020, which was inspired by Trump’s refusal to accept the results, these conspiracy theories haven’t received any support from the candidate. On Wednesday, Harris urged her supporters to accept the results and assured them her team “will engage in a peaceful transfer of power.” The phenomenon of left-leaning or anti-Trump accounts posting conspiracy theories on social media platforms, referred to as BlueAnon, came to prominence earlier this year in the wake of [the assassination attempt on Trump’s life in July](https://www.wired.com/story/trump-shooting-assassination-conspiracies/). “Any event that seems improbable will always invite conspiracy theories about what ‘really’ happened,” says Mike Rothschild, an author who writes about conspiracy theories and extremists. “In this case, it's a factually incorrect narrative that there are tens of millions of missing votes and that Russian bomb threats sabotaged the Harris campaign. Neither are true—turnout appears to be down, and many states, including California, are still well into counting. And while bomb threats are never acceptable, they're not the reason why the Harris campaign lost every swing state. To write Trump's win off to conspiracy theories is to not live in reality." While the leaders of the election denial movement miraculously did not find any voting-related conspiracies to share in the wake of Trump’s victory—unlike in 2020, when he lost—some of those figures could not help but indulge in some conspiratorial thinking. Dinesh D’Souza, who published a debunked and recalled book about ballot mules rigging the 2020 election, capitalized on the missing votes narrative to prove his claims about the 2020 election were right all along. “Kamala got 60 million votes in 2024,” D’Sousa wrote on X in a post viewed 3 million times. “Does anyone really believe Biden got 80 million in 2020? Where did those 20 million Democratic voters go? The truth is, they never existed. I think we can put the lie about Biden’s 80 million votes to rest once and for all.” Right-wing YouTuber Benny Johnson made similar claims in a post viewed more than 17 million times. Meanwhile, in the Telegram channels and WhatsApp groups that were formed to push election conspiracy theories, many of the leaders of the groups were patting themselves on the back for foiling the theft of another election. “I wonder if this is how a soldier feels when he returns home and people thank him for his service,” [Douglas Frank](https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-07-31/douglas-frank-election-denial-voting), who left his job as an Ohio high school math teacher to become a minor celebrity in the election denial world, wrote on his Telegram channel. “It's hard to take any credit; he just did his part, and he thinks of his friends that did not return home. And the war is far from over; I think we still have rough days ahead. See you in the battlefield.”

Nov 14, 2024 11:59 AM The rapid spread of false claims about election fraud has experts worried. While not being promoted by politicians or the media, as similar claims were in 2020, the conspiracy theories are still gaining traction.  Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty On November 9, a TikTok user called Etheria77 posted a nine-minute long video in which she [outlined a conspiracy](https://www.wired.com/story/election-fraud-conspiracies-flooding-social-media/) theory suggesting that [Elon Musk’s Starlink internet satellite](https://www.wired.com/story/spacex-starlink-internet-gigabit-speeds-fcc/) system was used as part of a sophisticated effort to steal the election on behalf of president-elect Donald Trump. “California and other swing states were able to use Starlink in order to tally up and to count voting ballots in their state,” said Etheria77. “The numbers don’t make sense, and the reason I’m going to tell you that is, you had guaranteed states that were going to turn blue and didn’t. Then you had millions of \[votes\] that are missing. This right here is bullshit.” The account was not the first to suggest the [conspiracy theory](https://www.wired.com/story/election-denial-conspiracy-theories-x-left-blueanon/), but the video was one of the main reasons it has taken off in recent days. While TikTok has since removed the video, that has not stopped it from being shared on other social media platforms, including X, Reddit, Threads, Facebook, and Instagram, where it has racked up millions of views. This was just one of dozens of TikTok videos, many of them with hundreds of thousands of views, that shared the conspiracy theory. On other platforms, accounts with large followings also boosted the Starlink conspiracy theory and an assortment of others about Trump’s win. The promotion of baseless election-related conspiracy theories, in what has been dubbed the rise of the [so-called BlueAnon movement](https://www.wired.com/story/trump-shooting-assassination-conspiracies/), mimics in many ways the rise of the Stop the Steal movement in the wake of the 2020 US presidential election. Just like now, those conspiracy theories began as vague claims of election fraud before morphing into very specific and increasingly unhinged narratives about voting machines, military satellites, and all-powerful figures working with the winning campaign. What [began as vague, amorphous claims](https://www.wired.com/story/election-denial-conspiracy-theories-x-left-blueanon/) that “something doesn’t add up” in the hours after president-elect Donald Trump won the election last week have now crystallized into an evolving conspiracy theory involving Musk and Starlink. The major difference, however, is that while [Trump and his allies](https://www.vice.com/en/article/trump-election-conspiracy-theories-taking-over-republican-party/) quickly embraced the conspiracies, so far no Democratic lawmaker or election official has promoted the idea that the 2024 election was stolen. "Similar to the general claims we've seen from the left baselessly speculating that the election was rigged for Trump, the surge in posts about Starlink appears to have been partly driven by relatively obscure accounts that often share little to no identifying information,” says Sam Howard, politics editor with media monitoring group NewsGuard. “I'm not aware of any federal-level Democratic officeholders or officials who have pushed this to date.” Harris and her campaign have never once suggested the election results are anything but what was reported, and in her concession speech last week Harris urged her supporters to accept the outcome. Disinformation researchers are still unsure whether this trend will continue to grow into a significant movement, akin to Stop the Steal, or fizzle out without support from major figures within the Democratic party. But some believe the movement could continue to grow thanks to influencers seeking to gain clout. “There are incentives for people to do this,” says Elise Thomas, a senior open source analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. “It feels really good to get all of those likes. If they're getting, you know, 100,000 likes, 500,000 likes for these tweets, they're going to keep doing it, and they're going to come up with new twists on the narrative, and new explanations. That's exactly what we saw happening on the right.” [It took just minutes](https://www.wired.com/story/election-denial-conspiracy-theories-x-left-blueanon/) after Vice President Kamala Harris conceded the election for conspiracy theories about the results to flood social media platforms. Research company PeakMetrics tracked a million posts on November 6 on X related to vague claims like “something doesn’t add up” along with hashtags like “#Recount2024“ and “#DontConcedeKamala.” Eighteen percent of these posts were made by inauthentic accounts, according to an analysis shared with WIRED by researchers from Cyabra, a real-time AI disinformation detection tool. However, when the researchers checked again this week, they found that while the proportion of inauthentic accounts had dropped significantly—6 percent—the conspiracy continued to grow. “Despite this decline, the conspiracy’s momentum persists, driven increasingly by a blend of real influencers and unwitting participants,” the Cyabra researchers wrote. PeakMetrics recorded a 2,200 percent rise in the number of posts mentioning Starlink and the election or voting between Saturday and Sunday last, with posts about the Starlink conspiracy theory surpassing posts using the #Recount2024 hashtag on X on Monday. A NewsGuard analysis shared with WIRED found there were 281,644 mentions of Starlink on X on November 10, compared to a daily average of 40,100 mentions a day from November 5 to November 9. The conspiracy theory took hold after it was discovered that Starlink was used at some polling locations to improve connectivity—not for voting machines, but for voter check-in. The false claims have been [repeatedly](https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.36MC7PJ) [debunked](https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-election-starlink-musk-steal-trump-38757341656d4f44243076d6356cb68b) [by fact-checking](https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/11/13/fact-check-was-elon-musks-starlink-used-to-rig-the-us-election) [organizations](https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2024/was-starlink-used-election-count-votes-fraud/), and election officials have reiterated that voting machines are not connected to the internet. Starlink did not respond to a request for comment. This conspiracy theory has continued to spread, and it's not limited to X: Discussion threads on Reddit, posts on Instagram and Threads, and dozens of Facebook posts all push the narrative that Musk colluded with Trump to use his Starlink satellites to steal the election. One of the most active platforms for these conspiracy theories is TikTok. WIRED has reviewed dozens of videos posted on the platform by users either repeating the claim about Musk and Starlink or adding new twists to the conspiracy theory. X, Meta, Reddit, and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment. One of the most popular new aspects of the theory relates to the fact that Starlink satellites were [observed burning up over the US last weekend,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhZGOPqsi34) which those pushing the conspiracy theory claim is evidence of Musk attempting to cover his tracks. The [reality](https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/11/11/spacex-starlink-satellite-breaking-up-fireball-meteor-video/76193700007/) is that Starlink satellites are designed to burn up on reentry at the end of their lifespan. The conspiracy theory has eerily similar aspects to the so-called Italygate conspiracy [pushed by the Trump campaign](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/15/pure-insanity-heres-perhaps-craziest-election-fraud-conspiracy-trump-team-pushed/) after the 2020 election, which suggested an Italian military satellite was used to flip votes from Trump to President Joe Biden. “It's concerning to see it solidifying and crystallizing into specific narratives, and then to see stuff being added on—this is what we saw last time as well,” says Thomas. “You see this sort of collective storytelling that happens within these communities where the people who are trying to gain clout online by promoting a new version of a conspiracy theory, they all have to add their little bits to it so that they can get their engagement.” Other conspiracy theorists claimed Trump spoke about “a little secret” he made onstage that he had with Musk, referencing a comment he made during his Madison Square Garden rally last month. In fact, the comment was [directed at House speaker Mike Johnson](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/28/trump-mike-johnson-little-secret-election). Some left-leaning accounts have also pointed to podcaster [Joe Rogan’s comments this week](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfSjQyFd7aU&t=1s) that Musk had developed a bespoke app to give him early access to election results. “Apparently Elon created an app and he knew who won the election four hours before the results,” Rogan said. “So as the results are coming in, four hours before they called it, Dana White told me Elon said, ‘I’m leaving. It’s over. Donald won.’” It’s unclear how this app worked or what data it used. Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that oversees the US elections, said in [a November 6 statement](https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/statement-cisa-director-easterly-security-2024-elections) that there was “no evidence of any malicious activity that had a material impact on the security or integrity of our election infrastructure.” While some right-wing figures are continuing to push election conspiracy theories, the vast majority have fallen silent in the wake of Trump’s win, abandoning overnight four years worth of nonstop posting and shouting about election fraud. And while the left-wing election conspiracies are nowhere near the scale that the Stop the Steal movement was just weeks ago, some experts are still concerned. “I've seen some comparisons to Stop the Steal and some of these other right-wing conspiracy election theories, and it is smaller than those, as they were at the end of the Trump presidency,” says Thomas. “But I think the significant difference there is that they came after months, if not years, of deliberate agitation and cultivation by a variety of actors. So, for me, to see these left-wing election fraud conspiracy theories getting pretty significant traction quickly, I think, personally, is quite concerning.”

_This_ [_episode_](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/audio/2023/nov/24/did-the-assassination-of-jfk-kickstart-the-conspiracy-theory-movement-podcast) _originally ran on Friday, November 24th, 2023._ President John F Kennedy was shot dead 61 years ago, as he travelled in the back of a car through the streets of Dallas, Texas. From the moment the news broke, people had their theories about what happened. So why did the assassination of JFK spawn dozens of conspiracy theories that have persisted for decades? Is there a reason why Americans are quick to believe their government is covering something up? And despite multiple examples of when conspiracies turn dangerous, are politicians today, including Kennedy’s own nephew, using conspiracy theories for political gain? _Archive: CBS, USA Today, CNN_  Photograph: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images

Dec 16, 2024 5:04 PM The man who allegedly shot United Healthcare’s CEO has inspired a seemingly never-ending flood of conspiracy theories about everything from his eyebrows to the number 286.  Photo-Illustration: Wired Staff; Getty/PA Department of Corrections On subreddits dedicated to [Luigi Mangione](https://www.wired.com/story/the-internet-is-gripped-by-mangione-mania/), tens of thousands of followers pore over the links between the man who allegedly shot the CEO of United Healthcare and the number 286. On Discord servers, dedicated groups obsess over individual eyebrow hairs. On X, accounts share the Monopoly-linked trail of clues that could prove Mangione’s innocence. And on TikTok, all of these conspiracy theories and more are shared in videos viewed tens of millions of times and set to songs like Britney Spears’ _Criminal_. This is the online world of conspiracy theories dedicated to Mangione, which have exploded in the week since he was arrested and charged with the December 4 murder of Brian Thompson. Following the shooting, a community of fans [lionized the shooter](https://www.wired.com/story/the-internet-is-gripped-by-mangione-mania/) as a left-wing folk hero standing up for the common man against the evils of the US health care system. Even though his real identity didn’t match this idealized version, [fans on TikTok and X embraced him anyway](https://www.wired.com/story/internet-culture-luigi-mangione-major-shift-fandom/), buying hoodies with his image and writing songs dedicated to him, along with posting [AI-generated music videos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usf3Rfo7p0Q). While a huge fandom has emerged in support of Mangione, though, there is a parallel world online where seemingly just as many people are dissecting every single aspect of the shooting and Mangione’s arrest to try and find the “truth.” One of the earliest of these conspiracy theories relates to Mangione’s distinctive eyebrows, which were one of the [main ways in which he was reportedly identified](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9vkygny20xo) by a customer in a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. (It should be pointed out that some in conspiracyland believe [a previously unknown face recognition technology](https://x.com/YesYoureRacist/status/1867234126086254976) was used to identify him—something for which there is no evidence.) Online sleuths have been comparing the images of the suspected shooter released by police prior to his arrest and Mangione’s mugshot and have come to the conclusion, based purely on eyebrow examination, that these are not the same person. On Reddit, where there is now a dedicated Luigi Mangione subreddit with 21,000 followers, one user took the time to “[photoshop Luigi Mangione's eyebrows onto the UHC CEO shooter](https://www.reddit.com/r/BrianThompsonMurder/comments/1hb54et/i_photoshopped_luigi_mangiones_eyebrows_onto_the/)” to prove their point that these are not the same person. In one particularly testy exchange on a conspiracy theories subreddit, two hair stylists clashed over Mangione’s eyebrows. “I was a hairstylist for 20 years back in the day, no one’s eyebrows grow that fast in three days,” one user wrote. “It was on the state board test. Hair on your head grows a quarter of an inch a month. Hair on your brows grows slower.” “I’m also a hair stylist and I work with models,” another user responded. “Different lighting and different facial expressions cause different shadows in photos. This man is trying to start a revolution. Don’t make a conspiracy out of someone who is for the people.” This is just one of the conspiracy theories swirling around about Mangione, though. Another popular theory relates to the number 286 and its multiple links to the alleged shooter. In his profile on X, Mangione features the Pokémon Breloom, which is the 286th Pokémon. Mangione also had posted exactly 286 times on X when he was arrested. 286 is also the code [health insurance companies use](https://www.mdclarity.com/denial-code/286) when “when the appeal time limits for a health care claim are not met.” Other users on TikTok pointed out a potential link to the Bible, with Proverbs 28:6 stating: “Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.” Finally, some people online claimed the distance between the location of the shooting and the McDonald’s where Mangione was spotted is 286 miles. However, [according to Google Maps](https://maps.app.goo.gl/VNH4jgk3ivygQwg78), the distance is actually 279 miles. Whatever the distance between it and Manhattan, the location of this McDonald’s has itself sparked some conspiracy theories, as seen in the work of one Reddit poster who took the time to document the many links between the board game Monopoly and the shooting. First, they pointed out that the backpack found in Central Park by police contained money from the game. They also noted that Altoona is the home of Pennsylvania Railroad, one of four railroads for sale in the standard US version of the game. Finally, the poster highlighted the fact that McDonald’s ran a promotional campaign with the game for decades, though it was halted briefly at the beginning of the century after a [massive fraud scandal](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/03/arts/television/mcmillions-hbo-explained.html) involving, among dozens of others, a key insider and Gennaro “Jerry” Colombo, who claimed to be a member of the Colombo crime family. Some conspiracy theorists on X are also trying to claim that Mangione is a “patsy” or a “CIA plant”—a [typical suggestion](https://www.wired.com/story/thomas-crooks-conspiracy-donald-trump-cia-mk-ultra/) in the wake of any high-profile shooting. One claim is that former House speaker Nancy Pelosi was somehow involved because her brother, a former mayor of Baltimore, once mentioned Mangione’s grandfather, a well-known businessman, in an interview in The Baltimore Sun. Beyond comments like “suspicious” or “well, well, well,” though, there appears to be little interest in this one even among the conspiratorially-minded. One of the more interesting theories floated over the weekend on Reddit claimed that the mysterious drones seen in New Jersey in recent weeks——which are quite possibly [neither mysterious nor drones](https://www.wired.com/story/new-jersey-drone-mystery-maybe-not-drones/)—are being used to “try to distract us from the United Healthcare uprising.” As with pretty much every other major incident that has happened in the US in the last century, for some people it just comes down to one idea. “It’s a psyop,” an account called Illuminati Eyes wrote as part of a 1,000-word post on X that has been viewed 4.6 million times. Having laid out the case for why this is a psyop—a psychological operation typically conducted by a government to influence a target audience’s beliefs—the account concludes: “Luigi didn’t kill Brian Thompson, the deep state did. 3/10 psyop—lazy execution, but it’s working.”

Every day​ for the past week, Kim Kwon-seop, 72, has joined thousands of others gathered near the home of South Korea’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol​. They were determined to shield Mr. Yoon from prosecutors who wanted to detain him on insurrection charges stemming from [his short-lived declaration of martial law](http://r/) last month. To them, it was the opposition who had committed insurrection, abusing its majority power at the Assembly​ to repeatedly block Mr. Yoon​’s political initiatives. To them, the opposition’s parliamentary majority ​was invalid because [the election last April](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/11/world/asia/south-korea-yoon-election.html) was rigged. And to them, protecting Mr. Yoon was synonymous with protecting South Korea from “North Korea followers” who have taken root in every corner of their society, from the judiciary to schools to the news media. ​South Koreans commonly dismiss such conspiracy theories as little more than online demagoguery spread by right-wing YouTubers with the help of social media algorithms. But amid the country’s entrenched political polarization, they have fueled the turmoil over Mr. Yoon’s situation, driving zealous believers like Mr. Kim to take to the streets in large numbers, calling for the president’s return to office. “When I leave home for this rally every day, I tell my wife that this may be the last time she sees me alive, because I am ready to die for my cause,” Mr. Kim said. “This is not just about protecting President Yoon. It’s about saving my country for my descendants.” If President-elect Donald J. Trump has a “Make America Great Again” movement behind him, Mr. Yoon has the “[taegeukgi budae](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--LOAsezneA)” ​(literally, “national-flag brigade”). It consists of mostly older, churchgoing South Koreans who enliven their rallies with patriotic songs, a wave of South Korean and American flags in support of their country’s alliance with ​Washington, and vitriolic attacks on the nation’s ​left-wing politicians, who they fear would ​hand their country over to China and North Korea.​ Supporters of Mr. Yoon have camped out for days on the pavement near his home in central Seoul, vowing to block anyone from trying to detain or arrest him.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and [log into](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F01%2F04%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fsouth-korea-yoon-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc) your Times account, or [subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F01%2F04%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fsouth-korea-yoon-conspiracy-theories.html) for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? [Log in](https://myaccount.nytimes.com/auth/login?response_type=cookie&client_id=vi&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F01%2F04%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fsouth-korea-yoon-conspiracy-theories.html&asset=opttrunc). Want all of The Times? [Subscribe](https://www.nytimes.com/subscription?campaignId=89WYR&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2025%2F01%2F04%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fsouth-korea-yoon-conspiracy-theories.html).

176591311 story [](//slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=ai) Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday March 02, 2025 @01:34PM from the GPT-Anon dept. A "decision science partner" at a seed-stage venture fund (who is also a cognitive-behavioral decision science author and [professional poker player](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Duke)) explored [what happens when GPT-4 Turbo converses with conspiracy theorists](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/26/ai-research-conspiracy-theories/): _Researchers have struggled for decades to develop techniques to weaken the grip of conspiracy theories and cult ideology on adherents. This is why [a new paper](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq1814) in the journal _Science_ by [Thomas Costello](https://www.thcostello.com/) of MIT's Sloan School of Management, [Gordon Pennycook](https://psychology.cornell.edu/gordon-pennycook) of Cornell University and [David Rand](https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/directory/david-g-rand), also of Sloan, is so exciting... In a pair of studies involving more than 2,000 participants, the researchers found a 20 percent reduction in belief in conspiracy theories after participants interacted with a powerful, flexible, personalized [GPT-4 Turbo](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8555510-gpt-4-turbo-in-the-openai-api) conversation partner. The researchers trained the AI to try to persuade the participants to reduce their belief in conspiracies by refuting the specific evidence the participants provided to support their favored conspiracy theory. The reduction in belief held across a range of topics... Even more encouraging, participants demonstrated increased intentions to ignore or unfollow social media accounts promoting the conspiracies, and significantly increased willingness to ignore or argue against other believers in the conspiracy. And the results appear to be durable, holding up in evaluations 10 days and two months later... Why was AI able to persuade people to change their minds? The authors posit that it "simply takes the right evidence," tailored to the individual, to effect belief change, noting: "From a theoretical perspective, this paints a surprisingly optimistic picture of human reasoning: Conspiratorial rabbit holes may indeed have an exit. Psychological needs and motivations do not inherently blind conspiracists to evidence...." It is hard to walk away from who you are, whether you are a QAnon believer, a flat-Earther, a truther of any kind or just a stock analyst who has taken a position that makes you stand out from the crowd. And that's why the AI approach might work so well. The participants were not interacting with a human, which, I suspect, didn't trigger identity in the same way, allowing the participants to be more open-minded. Identity is such a huge part of these conspiracy theories in terms of distinctiveness, putting distance between you and other people. When you're interacting with AI, you're not arguing with a human being whom you might be standing in opposition to, which could cause you to be less open-minded. _ Answering questions from Slashdot readers in 2005, Wil Wheaton [described playing poker against the cognitive-behavioral decision science author](https://slashdot.org/story/05/06/27/0926218/wil-wheaton-strikes-back) who wrote this article...

We live in a ­blizzard of fake news, ­disinformation and ­[conspiracy theories](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/12/ai-can-change-belief-in-conspiracy-theories-study-finds). It’s tempting to blame this on social media – which does indeed ­exacerbate the problem. And AI deepfakes promise to make the situation even worse. But at root this is not about technology: it’s about how humans think, as an astonishing case that long predates the internet reveals. This is an amazing story – about the perils of amazing stories. In November 1967, at the height of the war in Vietnam, a strange ­document was published in New York. _Report from Iron Mountain_ was the work of a top-secret “­special study group” recruited by the Kennedy administration to scope out what would happen to the US if permanent global peace broke out. It warned the end of war, and of the fear of war, would wreck America’s economy, even its whole society. To replace the effects, extreme measures would be required – eugenics, fake alien scares, pollution, blood games. Even slavery. The report was so incendiary it had been suppressed, but one of the study group leaked it, determined that the public learn the truth. It caused a furore. The worried memos, demanding someone check if this document was real, went all the way up to President Johnson. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/16/iron-mountain-hoax-anti-vietnam-war-satire-conspiracy-theories#img-2) A 1967 first edition of Leonard Lewin’s incendiary satirical book. Photograph: Phil Tinline In reality, as the White House eventually realised, _Report from Iron Mountain_ was a hoax. It was the brainchild of leftwing satirists: Victor Navasky, editor of a magazine called _Monocle_, his colleagues, and a fellow satirist, Leonard Lewin, who wrote it with the help of luminaries like the famous economist and former US ambassador to India, JK Galbraith. Their goal was to expose what they saw as the insanity driving the intervention in Vietnam, and the whole of the cold war. By presenting their fake report as a real leak, they aimed to make people ask if this insane document might be real – and what that said about the people running the US government. And it worked. To young Americans living under the shadow of conscription, _Report_ seemed all too plausible. Officials whispered to journalists that some of their ­colleagues really did think like this. Once the hoax had its satirical impact, Lewin came clean. But his work was so convincing it began to take on a life of its own.  Why we are all attracted to conspiracy theories – video In the late 1980s, _Report from Iron Mountain_ was discovered by the extreme right, which was convinced it was real. It was republished by a company called the Noontide Press, part of a network of fringe organisations that were among America’s primary promoters of Holocaust denial. These ­people were convinced they had found the smoking gun, confirming their darkest suspicions about the government’s secret plots to start wars and control the ­public. A ­horrified Lewin embarked on a long legal battle to take back control of his work and its true, meaning. But meanwhile, the militia movement spreading across the US seized on _Report_ _from Iron Mountain_, as fuel for its paranoid visions of imminent oppression at the hands of the ­one-world government and its black helicopters. And Lewin’s creation found its way to Hollywood. In _JFK_, [Oliver Stone’s 1991 movie](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/nov/24/jfk-revisited-through-the-looking-glass-review-oliver-stone-returns-to-the-grassy-knoll) about the Kennedy assassination, the great revelation about why the president was assassinated hinges on a character [repeating the hoax’s claims](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/apr/28/jfk-oliver-stone-john-f-kennedy) in the belief that they were disturbing truths. [](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/16/iron-mountain-hoax-anti-vietnam-war-satire-conspiracy-theories#img-3) The Branch Davidian religious-sect compound in Waco, Texas, after a raid by the US government on 19 April 1993. Photograph: Susan Weems/AP _R__eport_ even spawned a secondary hoax: _Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars_. This ­purported to be the operations ­manual that helped the elite control its ­sheeple-civilians. This strange text was first popularised by the pioneering conspiracist Milton William Cooper, who ­published it in _Behold a Pale Horse__,_ his influential compendium of ­conspiracy theories. Cooper also included extracts from _Report from Iron Mountain_ itself (and, horrifyingly, another hoax: that notorious antisemitic forgery _The Protocols of the Elders of Zion_). _Silent Weapons_ has often been cited by arch ­conspiracist Alex Jones and has been invoked by “Q”, the ostensible government insider revered by the [QAnon movement](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/16/qanon-conspiracy-theory-sound-of-freedom-trump-desantis). Lewin and his colleagues had contrived their hoax so expertly that they inadvertently created “evidence” for a host of conspiracy theories. It could be used to explain everything from why wars end to the real reasons behind lockdown, from environmental regulations and terrorist attacks to the fiery end of a cult in Waco, Texas. [ AI can change belief in conspiracy theories, study finds ](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/12/ai-can-change-belief-in-conspiracy-theories-study-finds) The reasoning at work here is revealing. If something in _Report_ chimes with what is really happening in the world, the conspiracist’s logic runs, that cannot be a coincidence. Rather, it exposes the secret motives that caused that reality. The ­principle here – a ­consistent fallacy of ­conspiracy theory – is that “nothing is accidental”. One online ­analysis of _Report_ _from Iron Mountain_ in 2014 even decided the fact Lewin later wrote a novel was an attempt to ­retrospectively create a cover ­identity so he could pretend _Report_ was fiction too. And yet the fate of this all-too-successful hoax also suggests what we might need to do to ­counter this kind of thinking. In a political ­climate roiled by conspiracy ­theories and disinformation, the tale of _Report_ _from Iron Mountain_ is a warning about the ­consequences of taking your eye off the line between compelling stories and what we know to be true. _Phil Tinline is the author of_ [_Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax That Duped America and Its Sinister Legacy_](https://guardianbookshop.com/ghosts-of-iron-mountain-9781035903849/)_, which will be published by_ _Head of Zeus on 27 March__._