Understanding the Freedom Convoy Movement's Collective Identity and Roles of Conspiracy Narratives: A Study of a Telegram Group

Sammanfattning: This thesis analyses how conspiracy narratives are used to negotiate a collective identity within the global branch of the Freedom Convoy movement. To better understand what common conspiracies are present and how they function for the group’s collective identity, this paper is based on empirical data from text messages and memes shared in a group chat on Telegram, an instant messaging platform. While the first part of the analysis is explorative, it then applies thematic analysis to move from establishing what conspiracies are out there to, in the second part of the thesis focus, on the functions of conspiracies, using a joint framework of identity negotiation through conspiracy narratives. The findings reveal that the present conspiracy narratives are not isolated, they often intersect one another and new events or strands of information are located within those previously established conspiracy narratives. Apart from conspiracies regarding Covid-19 in the Telegram group, there are also traces of conspiracy narratives regarding the Deep State, the Great Reset, and QAnon, just to mention a few. Moreover, those narratives contribute to the group’s collective sense in three ways: distinguishing between us and them, providing compelling interpretations where the group’s members are threatened by “them”, and amplifying those sentiments with repetitive and confirmative messages. Finally, this thesis concludes that the boundaries of conspiracies in the group are fluid; hence one narrative can have several functions for collective identity negotiation.