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Paper short abstract

Through a mixed-method analysis of a Twitter corpus on the Unification Church, as well as of the external media linked within, this paper presents insights on the propagation of conspiracies, and on the underlying metapolitical, 'digital populist' strategies through which they are amplified.

Paper long abstract

Although prior to the assassination of Abe Shinzo, online discussions on the nature of the new religious movement known as the Unification Church remained mostly within the realm of esoteric conspiracies, the immediate aftermath of the incident opened the topic for discussion widely and thoroughly throughout all mediaspheres. Using an innovative mixed-method analysis of a large-scale corpus of pre-assassination and post-assassination tweets on the topic of the Unification Church as well as of the external media linked within those tweets, this paper presents insights on how, in the wake of major events, different platforms and external contents are relied upon to construct larger conspiratorial, transnational, and xenophobic ‘us versus them’ narratives on Japanese Twitter, insights into the digital ‘populist’ nature of using social media aggregators and private citizen blogs to discursively amplify those narratives, and, finally, insights into what metapolitical strategies underlay those narratives.