The aftermath of the 2020 US Presidential Election witnessed an unprecedented attack on the democratic values of the country through the violent insurrection at Capitol Hill on January 6th, 2021. The attack was fueled by the proliferation of conspiracy theories and misleading claims about the integrity of the election pushed by political elites and fringe communities on social media. In this study, we explore the evolution of fringe content and conspiracy theories on Twitter in the seven months leading up to the Capitol attack. We examine the suspicious coordinated activity carried out by users sharing fringe content, finding evidence of common adversarial manipulation techniques ranging from targeted amplification to manufactured consensus. Further, we map out the temporal evolution of, and the relationship between, fringe and conspiracy theories, which eventually coalesced into the rhetoric of a stolen election, with the hashtag #stopthesteal, alongside QAnon-related narratives. Our findings further highlight how social media platforms offer fertile ground for the widespread proliferation of conspiracies during major societal events, which can potentially lead to offline coordinated actions and organized violence.

翻译：2020年美国总统大选后，2021年1月6日国会山发生的暴力叛乱事件前所未有地冲击了国家的民主价值体系。此次袭击的导火索是政治精英及社交媒体边缘群体推动的选举阴谋论与误导性主张的泛滥。本研究探讨了国会山袭击前七个月间，Twitter平台上边缘内容与阴谋论的演变轨迹。通过分析分享边缘内容的用户所实施的可疑协同活动，我们发现从定向放大到人为制造共识等常见对抗性操纵手段的证据。进一步，我们绘制了边缘理论与阴谋论的时间演变图谱及其关联性——这些内容最终与"#停止偷窃"（#stopthesteal）标签及QAnon相关叙事相互交织，共同构成了"选举被窃取"的修辞框架。研究结果进一步揭示，社交媒体平台如何在重大社会事件中为阴谋论的广泛传播提供温床，进而可能引发线下协同行动与有组织的暴力行为。