COVID Lockdown 2.0 Conspiracy

Submission 5,884

Part of a series on COVID-19 Pandemic. [View Related Entries]

About

The COVID Lockdown 2.0 Conspiracy is a conspiracy theory based on unfounded rumors that the Biden administration is planning on reinstating COVID-19 lockdown or quarantine protocols in response to an increase in coronavirus cases that occurred in the summer of 2023. The theory was first pushed by Alex Jones on Infowars, leading several conservative social media posters to claim they would not comply with a potential lockdown. As of late August 2023, there is no evidence that the Biden administration is planning to reintroduce lockdowns.

Origin

On August 18th, 2023, Infowars^[1] wrote that the Biden administration purportedly plans to reintroduce some COVID-19 lockdown measures in September, with a full reintroduction of the 2020-2021 lockdown measures to take place in December 2023. According to its piece, "a high-level TSA official" supposedly told Infowars that TSA and airport employees were told that mandatory masking policies would return in September.

Infowars then said it reached out to "a trusted Border Patrol source" and heard that Border Patrol had received the same guidelines. The article then extrapolated this information to claim the U.S. government is planning the reintroduction of lockdown policies to combat the Eris variant of COVID, which had caused a recent uptick in cases, though scientists have opined it is less severe than previous variants.^[2]

In the August 18th article, Infowars argued that the lockdowns would be put into effect to divide the country and help President Joe Biden politically, citing how mail-in ballots largely helped Biden in the 2020 United States Presidential Election. Infowars wrote:

Infowars’ analysis is clear: this new rollout’s timing is perfect for the embattled Biden administration to put the country back in a state of civil emergency and even martial law to further divide and confuse the public and move forward with the greatest election meddling in history.

The same day, Alex Jones appeared on the Infowars show to further spread the conspiracy (repost by @AlexJonesFan6 shown below).

Spread

After Infowars sounded the alarm about a potential new lockdown, other conservative influencers and users on Twitter pointed to circumstantial evidence in order to push the conspiracy that the Biden administration was purportedly gearing up to reintroduce lockdown measures.

On August 21st, 2023, Natalie Winters^[3] (a co-host of Steve Bannon's War Room) showed supposed receipts of the U.S. government purchasing COVID-19-related equipment, such as test kits and consulting services, as proof that the government was getting ready to implement a second lockdown, gaining over 10,000 retweets and 15,000 likes on Twitter in two days (shown below, left).

On August 22nd, Mike Cernovich^[4] posted falling Pfizer stock prices to suggest that the government was getting ready to further COVID hysteria to boost the company's profits, gaining over 9,800 retweets and 37,000 likes in roughly a day (shown below, right).

The hashtag "#DoNotComply" spread among conservatives and various users on Twitter with posts and images declaring that they would not comply with lockdown restrictions. For example, on August 23rd, user @RealHickory^[5] posted an image implying a second lockdown was part of Biden's plan to win reelection, gaining over 500 retweets and 800 likes in roughly six hours (shown below, left).

The same day, user @Sassafrass_84^[6] made a post declaring that she would not wear a mask if lockdown restrictions were reintroduced, gaining over 130 retweets and 200 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

As of August 23rd, there is no evidence suggesting the Biden administration is planning to reintroduce lockdown restrictions later in 2023.^[7]