ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the concepts of conspiratorial publics and conspiratorial canon within the context of Strategic Digital Information Operations (SDIOs) as a framework that will allow scholars to better understand the extensive communities of conspiracy theorists and their user practices that are persistently present in online environments. Conspiratorial publics involve networks of individuals who collectively work to promote conspiratorial narratives on digital platforms, and do so through the use of SDIOs and a reliance on existing conspiratorial narratives which we refer to as “conspiratorial publics.” We operationalise our proposed framework through an analysis of 13,500 posts from X which were posted during the 2023 Maui wildfires. The findings of the chapter suggest that the transient character of conspiracy theories and their potential to resurrect more established notions that comprise the “conspiratorial canon” are utilised on digital platforms as instruments of political manipulation and control.
