Trolls, hackers, anons: Conspiracy theories in the peripheries of the web

Conspiracy theories permeate through every level of theWeb. The semiotic features of this medium lead to mistrust, misunderstanding, and aberrant interpretations entailing a mythological approach to meaning. The essay investigates the relations between conspiracy theories and the semiotic features of a peculiar area of the Web: its peripheries. In particular, the essay focuses on the so–called “A-culture”, hosted in the boards of sites such as 4chan and 8chan. In order to study the semiotic dynamics that promote the rise of conspiracy theories, the essay singles out a particularly challenging case study: the violent Web dispute about video games and feminism, known as #GamerGate.