These Facebook groups had previously been identified by ISD analysts, as in the last 12 months they also hosted content that promoted the QAnon conspiracy. Between them, from June to February, they featured 58 posts that discussed the “Great Reset”. Two such communities are the linked Facebook groups, Nee tegen de Corona maatregelen (1) (No to Corona measures) and Nee tegen de Corona maatregelen (2), run by the same Facebook users, with 49,600 and 41,900 members respectively. Without access to data, it is unclear how much more related activity there might be in closed groups on the platform.īut who is talking about the theory? The most prolific communities promoting content about the “Great Reset” are a cluster of Facebook groups that frequently feature COVID-19 misinformation. By January 2021, the figures doubled yet again with an average of 28 posts per day. By October, this grew to an average of 6.3 posts per day and by December, this had more than doubled to 13.6 posts per day. The average number of posts among Dutch Facebook pages/groups promoting the “Great Reset” conspiracy from June 2020 – February 2021.ĭuring June 2020, there were an average of 1.5 posts per day mentioning the “Great Reset” among Dutch-speaking communities on Facebook. At first, discussion of the conspiracy was minimal, although it grew steadily before skyrocketing in January 2021.
ISD’s analysis shows that between 1 June 2020 and 2 February 2021, there were at least 1,983 posts that mentioned the “Great Reset” on Dutch language Facebook pages and public groups. The Anti-Defamation League has also tracked the conspiracy’s antisemitic tropes that claim the WEF is “controlled” by Jews who are using the “Great Reset” to set up a “One World Government.” This is in part thanks to amplification from right-wing US media figures including Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson, who have appropriated elements of the “Great Reset” theory as proof of a supposed plot to erode freedoms and capitalism. What was first a marginal conspiracy theory confined to the fringes of the web has, since November 2020, become a disinformation ecosystem in itself. The key elements of the “Great Reset” conspiracy, as analysed in the Guardian, are that the “global elite is using COVID-19 as an opportunity to roll out radical policies such as forced vaccination, digital ID cards and the renunciation of private property.” Conspiracy theorists believe this initiative is in fact a plot to destroy capitalism and enact a one world government under the cover of COVID-19. The Great Reset is the name of an initiative launched by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in June 2020 that called for “fairer outcomes” and a rethinking of global investment and government expenditure in order to revive the world’s economy in light of the catastrophic economic effects of the pandemic. The spread of the “Great Reset” conspiracy throughout the Netherlands makes clear how, in a short space of time, a high profile political figure can use Facebook to significantly inflate what was previously a marginal conspiracy theory. Research from the Reuters Institute last year concluded that politicians, celebrities and public figures generated 69% of social media engagement around coronavirus misinformation, even though they accounted for only 20% of the misleading posts. When public figures promulgate conspiracy theories, the reach of these narratives is expanded exponentially. This Dispatches post examines how the conspiracy is growing among online communities in the Netherlands, and how Thierry Baudet, the leader of the Dutch right-wing populist party Forum for Democracy, has played a key role in mainstreaming it. The “Great Reset” conspiracy is a small but growing online conspiracy that claims a global elite is using the coronavirus pandemic to dismantle capitalism and enforce radical social change.