Do we live in a "Golden Age of Conspiracy Theories?" In the last few decades, conspiracy theories have proliferated on the Internet with some having dangerous real-world consequences. A large contingent of those who participated in the January 6th attack on the US Capitol believed fervently in the QAnon conspiracy theory. In this work, we study the relationships amongst five prominent conspiracy theories (QAnon, COVID, UFO/Aliens, 9-11, and Flat-Earth) and each of their respective relationships to the news media, both mainstream and fringe. Identifying and publishing a set of 755 different conspiracy theory websites dedicated to our five conspiracy theories, we find that each set often hyperlinks to the same external domains, with COVID and QAnon conspiracy theory websites largest amount of shared connections. Examining the role of news media, we further find that not only do outlets known for spreading misinformation hyperlink to our set of conspiracy theory websites more often than mainstream websites but this hyperlinking has increased dramatically between 2018 and 2021, with the advent of QAnon and the start of COVID-19 pandemic. Using partial Granger-causality, we uncover several positive correlative relationships between the hyperlinks from misinformation websites and the popularity of conspiracy theory websites, suggesting the prominent role that misinformation news outlets play in popularizing many conspiracy theories.

翻译：我们是否生活在一个“阴谋论的黄金时代”？在过去几十年中，阴谋论在互联网上激增，其中一些带来了危险的真实世界后果。参与2021年1月6日美国国会大厦袭击事件的大量人员，曾对QAnon阴谋论深信不疑。在本研究中，我们考察了五种主要阴谋论（QAnon、COVID-19、UFO/外星人、9-11事件和地平论）之间的关系，并分析了它们各自与主流及边缘新闻媒体之间的联系。通过识别并发布一组专门针对这五种阴谋论的755个不同网站，我们发现每个网站集合通常链接到相同的外部域名，其中COVID-19和QAnon阴谋论网站之间共享链接最多。在考察新闻媒体的作用时，我们进一步发现，以传播虚假信息著称的传播渠道不仅比主流网站更频繁地链接到我们的阴谋论网站集合，而且这种超链接行为在2018年至2021年间随着QAnon的出现和COVID-19大流行的开始显著增加。利用部分格兰杰因果关系，我们揭示了虚假信息网站的超链接与阴谋论网站热度之间的若干正向相关关系，这暗示了虚假信息传播渠道在推广众多阴谋论中扮演着重要角色。