Social media teems with conspiracy theories from QAnon and Trump critics after president's positive COVID-19 test
Nathan Bomey, USA TODAY
Oct. 2, 2020
The misinformation age quickly enveloped the news that President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, had tested positive for COVID-19, as conspiracy theories about the news flourished on social media.
Followers of the extremist conspiracy group QAnon, who have concocted a variety of falsehoods about the roots of the pandemic since it began, scrambled to explain how Trump's announcement fits into
their false premise.
Meanwhile, critics of the president circulated conspiracy theories about the announcement, questioning its legitimacy after years of Trump spreading lies and misinformation about numerous issues, including the coronavirus.
In some cases, Americans are simply wondering how this could happen and seeking out information to make sense of the situation.
Trump and COVID-19: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube race to contain disinformation about president's diagnosis
"Conspiracy theorists – but also just Americans who are not conspiracy theorists, because there’s not a lot of information available – will let their imaginations run wild about what is happening here," said Katy Byron, editor and program manager of journalist nonprofit The Poynter Institute's MediaWise, a fact-checking group.
"This is when people need to be vigilant and wait to see more information that is confirmed by multiple news outlets," she added.
Many people aren't waiting.
The speculative flood of commentary on social media about the president's positive test illustrates how a desire to explain the news through one's chosen ideological framework is not exclusive to one particular side of the political aisle, Byron said. It is, in fact, a very human tendency to seek out and promote information that confirms our respective biases about the world, regardless of the facts.
The speculative flood of commentary on social media about the president's positive test illustrates how a desire to explain the news through one's chosen ideological framework is not exclusive to one particular side of the political aisle, Byron said. It is, in fact, a very human tendency to seek out and promote information that confirms our respective biases about the world, regardless of the facts.
Supporters of President Donald Trump hold up their phones with messages referring to the QAnon conspiracy theory at a campaign rally at Las Vegas Convention Center on February 21, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo: Mario Tama, Getty Images)
In this particular case, however, the flood of conspiracy theories about Trump's positive test comes against a mountainous backdrop of misinformation built, in part, by the president himself.
Trump has
repeatedly misled the public about the pandemic, having consistently
denied or downplayed the science regarding the spread of the coronavirus,
questioned the need for masks and
promoted bogus cures.
After Trump's announcement confirming his positive test, believers in QAnon, which the FBI has deemed a domestic terror threat, sought to decode the wording of his tweet as a sign that the president was poised to arrest former Democratic presidential nominee and Trump rival Hillary Clinton who was falsely accused of involvement in a cabal of satanic Democrats running a secret child-sex trafficking ring.
They suggested, without evidence, that Trump actually doesn't have the virus at all but was sending a message that he's about to go on a mission to root out the evil cabal.
Thinking, one, or two reasons. Possibly, to get out of sight and away from a threat against them and not scare the public. Or, they will take the therapeutic drug and become well. Showing everyone the truth. He was on HCQ before. It is hard for me to imagine he has gotten it.
— Patriot (@FaithRunsDeep) October 2, 2020
"
QAnon followers, again, unsurprisingly, don't believe the diagnosis is real," said Aoife Gallagher, a disinformation and extremism analyst at the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue, in an email interview. "They are excited about the news as they believe Trump is feigning quarantine in order to bring about 'The Storm,' the mass arrest of the 'deep state cabal,' the moment Q followers have been waiting on for years now."
In recent weeks, Facebook and Twitter have announced plans to crack down on QAnon content, but theories promoted by followers of what Gallagher has called a "digital cult" were still readily findable on Friday morning.
But they weren't the only people circulating conspiracy theories about the situation.
On the left, opponents of Trump suggested in various ways that the president was lying about his diagnosis for the sake of a political gain with about a month to go before Election Day.
There’s also a part of me that thinks Trump is lying about getting Covid to delay the debates.
— Joey Diamond (@Jdiamondisme) October 2, 2020
