Since the breakout of COVID-19 in late 2019, various conspiracy theories have spread widely on social media and other channels, fueling misinformation about the origins of COVID-19 and the motives of those working to combat it. This study analyzes tweets (N = 313,088) collected over a 9-month period in 2020, which mention a set of well-known conspiracy theories about the role of Bill Gates during the pandemic. Using a topic modeling technique (i.e., Biterm Topic Model), this study identified ten salient topics surrounding Bill Gates on Twitter, and we further investigated the interactions between different topics using Granger causality tests. The results demonstrate that emotionally charged conspiratorial narratives are more likely to breed other conspiratorial narratives in the following days. The findings show that each conspiracy theory is not isolated by itself. Instead, they are highly dynamic and interwoven. This study presents new empirical insights into how conspiracy theories spread and interact during crises. Practical and theoretical implications are also discussed.

中文翻译：

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大流行期间 Twitter 上阴谋论叙事的动态分析。

自 2019 年底爆发 COVID-19 以来，各种阴谋论在社交媒体和其他渠道上广泛传播，助长了关于 COVID-19 的起源以及那些致力于打击它的人的动机的错误信息。这项研究分析了 2020 年 9 个月期间收集的推文 (N = 313,088)，其中提到了一系列关于比尔盖茨在大流行期间所扮演角色的著名阴谋论。使用主题建模技术（即 Biterm 主题模型），本研究确定了 Twitter 上围绕比尔盖茨的十个突出主题，我们进一步使用格兰杰因果检验调查了不同主题之间的相互作用。结果表明，情绪激动的阴谋论叙事更有可能在接下来的几天里滋生出其他阴谋论叙事。调查结果表明，每个阴谋论都不是孤立的。相反，它们是高度动态和交织在一起的。这项研究对阴谋论在危机期间如何传播和相互作用提出了新的实证见解。还讨论了实践和理论意义。