Toxic Onlife Infowarfare

In this chapter, I discuss the various elements representing toxic talk and poisonous scenarios (conspiracy, delusions) in the so-called infowars (Nagle, 2017) that leak from the web and create harm and criminal activity in the everyday life through physical attacks and hegemonic ideologies that ‘weaponize the media’. Topics that will be touched upon involve the birth and Onlife spread of alt-right and QAnon theories, ‘plandemic’ delusions, and other web-based cultural genealogies. This chapter is an opportunity to gather together various theories of content-based harm and crime, involving and comparing relevant perspectives also from the Global South. Also central is the discussion over the cultural phenomena of ‘cyber’ trolling, doxxing, and stalking through digital platforms and subsequent Onlife actions.