This study investigates how language mutations affect the persistent diffusion of conspiracy theories on social media. Drawing on a three-year dataset of conspiracy-related posts from X, and applying computational linguistic analysis alongside survival modelling, we find that conspiracy claims with greater semantic mutations have substantially longer lifespans. Mutations in psycholinguistic properties, including pronouns, social reference words, cognitive process terms, risk- and health- related vocabularies, are associated with extended lifespans. Mutations in actor, action and target (AAT) categories are associated with longer lifespans as well. Qualitative analysis identifies two predominant mutation patterns: simplification and assimilation, at both linguistic and AAT structural levels. Taken together, the results advance our understanding of how language mutations contribute to conspiracy persistence online and shed lights on longitudinal content moderation strategies. We argue that content moderation should consider the mutability of conspiracy claims and focus on the core claims that can address their potential variations.

翻译：本研究探讨语言突变如何影响社交媒体上阴谋论的持续传播。基于X平台三年间与阴谋相关帖子的数据集，结合计算语言学分析与生存建模，我们发现语义突变程度越大的阴谋主张其生命周期显著越长。心理语言学特征的突变（包括代词、社会指涉词、认知过程术语、风险与健康相关词汇）与生命周期的延长存在关联。主体、行为与目标（AAT）类别的突变同样与更长的生命周期相关。定性分析识别出两种主要突变模式：简化和同化，在语言层面和AAT结构层面均有体现。综合而言，这些成果深化了我们对语言突变如何促成阴谋论在线持续性的理解，并为纵向内容审核策略提供了启示。我们主张内容审核应考量阴谋主张的可变性，并聚焦于能够应对其潜在变体的核心主张。