How a conspiracy theory about Ukrainian ‘bioweapons labs’ took off
In the hours after Russia invaded Ukraine, a longtime QAnon follower using the handle @WarClandestine tweeted that approximately 30 US-funded ‘biolabs’ were dotted across Ukraine. Putin’s assault on Ukraine, he theorised, was really about stopping an American-orchestrated biological attack on Russia.
He was just remixing an allegation Moscow had made for years: that the US was running a secret bioweapons programme and had Russia in its sights. But from that single tweet, the conspiracy theory quickly spread.
Now, according to a recent YouGov poll, more than a quarter of Americans think it’s ‘definitely’ or ‘probably’ true that research labs in Ukraine funded by the US Department of Defense are plotting to unleash biological weapons on Russia.
Even before Fox News’s Tucker Carlson amplified the theory, the Canadian journalist Justin Ling had been watching it spread across the internet. He tells Michael Safi that watching it gain momentum, he could see Russia’s techniques for amplifying disinformation in action.
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