Plandemic, Vaccinistan, and a New World Order: Conspiracies from around the continent

January 14, 2022 — HANNAH RICHTER & JORDY NIJENHUIS

In Partnership with Are We Europe

The theory linking 5G to the coronavirus first began on a French website called Les moutons enragés, or “the furious sheep.” Within three months, telephone masts were being set on fire across Europe, and shortly after, the theory had travelled around the world. 

The European Observatory of Online Hate is building a dashboard to detect hate speech and disinformation in all 24 working languages of the European Union. It is a mighty challenge, but it gives us the opportunity to compare narratives in different languages and create an overview of disinformation throughout Europe. 

Here are some of the craziest conspiracy theories that our annotators have encountered. Of course, we can only scratch the surface, but these theories highlight the diversity of narratives across Europe and provide a glimpse into the minds of the people who spread them. 

Vaccinistan

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, anti-vax conspiracy theories have become dominant in the disinformation landscape. Most of them are rooted in general concerns; doubts about the vaccines’ safety, questions about the pharmaceutical industry’s true motives, and criticisms towards the restrictions implemented by governments worldwide.

After 18 months of lockdowns, social distancing, and washing our hands, these narratives have evolved into something far more dangerous. The idea of a planned pandemic, known as the “plandemic,” circulated widely after more than eight million people watched a video hoax. Despite social media platforms removing the video, the plandemic has become a central theme for anti-vaxxers and COVID-conspiracy theorists. 

In Eastern Europe, the vaccine is sometimes called “Satan's weapon”, scaring religious communities into not taking it. And in Finland, some say that the side effects of the vaccine have actually caused tens of thousands of deaths that are being covered up by the mainstream media.

In Italy, conspiracy theorists are comparing health measures, like mandatory vaccinations for employees and QR codes, to the violent and harsh rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan. This is where the term “Vaccinistan” originated, though it has spread beyond Italy. 

In Greece, rumours are circulating that the government is building new concentration camps in preparation for another Holocaust.

They’re coming for your children

Fear is one of the most powerful driving forces behind misinformation. Some conspiracies are based on the deep-rooted fear that someone is coming to take our children. Especially in Eastern Europe, these stories seem to be dominant and shared widely. Sadly enough, some of them are grounded in reality. 

As the phenomenon of human trafficking grows in Romania, so do the conspiracy theories surrounding stolen children. After an awful mishap regarding social services wrongly taking the children of one family away, theorists built on this to convince others it was happening on a larger scale. These stories have now crossed borders, with rumours in Bulgaria that Norwegians have set up a scheme in which they travel to Eastern Europe to kidnap children, just to make them “gay.”

Making it rain

Just as governments are under close scrutiny, according to conspiracy theorists they are also to blame for pretty much everything. Loss of freedoms? Must’ve been the government. Loss of income? The government. But are they also to blame for the weather? Anti-vax protestors in Latvia seemed to think so, believing that the government would use their “rain making machine” to rain COVID-19 over protestors during their anti-vax march. 

But it isn’t only Latvians imagining their government is playing God, either. Floods in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands provided anti-vaxxers with a new opportunity. They used these horrific events to blame governments for orchestrating the disasters to take the attention away from COVID-19, or by calling them a flat-out hoax.

Foreign interference

In most European countries, articles shared on Facebook with an anti-vax narrative were mainly from the UK, the US, and Russia. Telegram groups have grown, using Google Translate to repost Russian disinformation as a source. These groups aren’t necessarily strategic in their methods, but they still manage to have a big impact as their disinformation moves swiftly across to mainstream social media platforms. 

Suddenly, conspiracy theorists are communicating across language divides. Despite the troubled history and political differences between Latvian and Russian minorities, during the vaccination uptake in both countries, the anti-vaxxers united. This has been occurring throughout the world, with unlikely groups being drawn together across the internet, in order to oppose the COVID-19 vaccination programme.

Shadowy organisations from the past

Many conspiracy theories tend to have an element of shadowy organisations controlling the world. The so-called “new world order” is being referenced a lot throughout Europe. These organisations always seem to be built around the famous nouveau riche. Now a classic, the niche story about the Black Nobility of Venice has a bit more flair than contemporary takes on who wants to take over the world, and why. In this theory, a masked family from Venice has paired up with other influential international families to control the world. Figures like Queen Elizabeth, the Kennedy’s and the Rothschild’s have all been rumoured to be part of this exclusive club. You can only imagine what their parties must have looked like.  

Similarly, the influence of mythology from Ancient Greece is still visible in many conspiracy theories today. From Atlantis to aliens, Ancient Greece always seems to appear. This admiration for the past actually goes so far that some people are changing their last names to sound more Greek after being harassed online, and social media users like to “Greekify” words to make them sound more authentic.

Amal the immigrant

As the 3.5-metre-tall puppet of “Little Amal” walks from the Syrian border to the UK in the footsteps of a young refugee girl, she faces similar narratives to many refugees and immigrants across Europe. Despite embodying the urgent message of “don’t forget about us,” to the anti-immigration-minded she symbolises Islamism raging through their countries. This isn’t far off from the “Kalergi plan,” or its modern variant, the Great Replacement Theory, a Nazi conspiracy theory that immigration is an attempt to genetically eradicate the European race.

Similar sentiments have been around for years, but the theories we are facing online today are becoming more cloaked in symbolism. Instead of attacking refugees head on, people hide behind their attacks of a puppet, or make references to an age-old plan. That said, with a rise in anti-immigration hate online, it is no surprise that there has also been a rise in physical security concerns offline for immigrants in European countries.

Security concerns are not only limited to the safety of immigrants. Far-right groups and hooligans have been purposely mixing with anti-vax and anti-government protestors to promote their own ideology, or to turn things violent. In Slovenia,  things got rather messy, when pensioners were tear-gassed by the police after hooligans took over a peaceful political protest. In the Netherlands, anti-lockdown riots raged through the country, and COVID testing locations were burned—both of which have been linked to extremist ideologies. 

Spreading like wildfire

With these theories now spreading like wildfire, it might feel like the world has gone crazy. Luckily, only a very small part of society actually believes them. If you do encounter a conspiracy theorist, be it a friend, family member, or colleague, it may be beneficial to engage with them. Having these conversations about their beliefs can be incredibly difficult and challenging, but it is becoming increasingly important.

At the end of the day, we should remember that we are all human. No one is immune to believing conspiracy theories and disinformation. So continue to have those difficult conversations, if you can, but do so with empathy and respect, and without judgement.

This article was originally published in Are We Europe’s print magazine.

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