Yesterday, President Joe Biden used the phrase “new world order” in a speech at Business Roundtable's CEO quarterly meeting in Washington, DC, prompting some online to speculate that the long-standing New World Order conspiracy theory is real, while others mocked them and caused the term to trend online today.

The “new world order” Biden mentioned in his speech actually refers to a concept in international relations and history that particular ways of doing geopolitics become possible in certain historical eras. Following World War II, the Allies imposed a rules-based world order defined by institutions like the United Nations and treaties like the Geneva Convention, preventing direct conflict between major powers and setting rules for what countries could do. Prior to this, other kinds of world order (and disorder) also existed.

One such example is the colonial “world order” that was dominated by European empires, which came to an end with the violent years between 1900 and 1946 in which (as Biden told his audience) 60 million people died. Biden expressed during his speech that he thinks the world is at another “inflection point,” in which the post-WWII world order that was traditionally underwritten by American power, will be replaced by another.

The “new world order” that some on the internet thought Biden was referring to in his speech is a long-existing concept and conspiracy theory that a secretive cabal (sometimes suggested as the Illuminati or Freemasons) is orchestrating world events with the ultimate goal of gaining total control of society. The phrase came originally from a George H.W. Bush speech in 1990 called "Toward a New World Order."

Despite the conspiracy existing for decades with no real evidence, some commentators and political leaders seemed to perpetuate the belief that Biden was referring to the latter definition of “New World Order” in his speech as people of opposing views clashed on platforms like Twitter.

As "new world order" continued to trend on social media and receive numerous articles covering it today, some took the opportunity to mock those for their conspiratorial mindset.

Additionally, some questioned why the Biden team used the term in an official speech to begin with given the fact that "new world order" has trended numerous times in previous years for other instances like this. Around the world, some posters simply wondered what the New World Order might mean for them personally.