# Soros, Child Sacrifices, and 5G: Understanding the Spread of Conspiracy Theories on Web Communities

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.02187 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.02187/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 3 Nov 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Spillover of Antisocial Behavior from Fringe Platforms: The Unintended Consequences of Community Banning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.09803/) (2022)
- [Understanding Online Migration Decisions Following the Banning of Radical Communities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04765/) (2022)
- [Stranger Danger! Cross-Community Interactions with Fringe Users Increase the Growth of Fringe Communities on Reddit](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.12186/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper presents a multi-platform computational pipeline geared to identify social media posts discussing (known) conspiracy theories. We use 189 conspiracy claims collected by Snopes, and find 66k posts and 277k comments on Reddit, and 379k tweets discussing them. Then, we study how conspiracies are discussed on different Web communities and which ones are particularly influential in driving the discussion about them. Our analysis sheds light on how conspiracy theories are discussed and spread online, while highlighting multiple challenges in mitigating them.