User:CasperCasey/Propaganda through media

Lead
This will be added to the page Propaganda through Media under the section titled "Social Media"

Imageboards
Imageboards are online messaging boards that largely consist of images, users can sometimes include complementary text. These websites are used to discuss various topics.

4Chan
4chan is an imageboard website created by Christoper Poole in the early 2000s. 4chan is set up as message boards organized by themes. Users post anonymously and are therefore called ‘anons’.

Conspiracy theories on 4chan
4chan's anonymous nature and fundamentalist belief in free expression leads to a unique group of people using the website to spread information. 4chan is known for their fundamentalist belief in free expression. This has "lead it [4chan] to evolve into a more reactionary community, fighting online ‘culture wars’ against left-wing ‘Social Justice Warriors’ (SJWs) and becoming associated with the Alt-Right."

4chan's imageboard style allows an easy way for users to spread disinformation. 4chan's imageboard style allows website users to create "images of information", they "collect these images into evidence collages", which can be used to spread disinformation. Since these message boards on 4chan can get rather long, 4chan has limits of how long threads can be. If the threads are too long then they will disappear. This causes a "dynamic environment" as a new "original poster" can reinitiate a discussion that disappeared in a new thread; this can lead to "narrative reframing" akin to the game of telephone, which can lead to the spread of disinformation.

This combination of the Alt-Right using 4chan and the act of spreading disinformation being so easy leads to the creation and spread of conspiracy theories. One of the most notable conspiracy theories born on 4chan is QAnon. QAnon is a "conspiratorial worldview", members believe an underground cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles whose participants largely comprised of leftist elites with globalist agendas exist and is embedded within the U.S. government.