The past few weeks have been a fever dream for the online conspiracy world. Wild claims about Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, went from the fringes of the internet to mainstream social media platforms, and people who normally don’t deal with conspiracies found themselves leading the charge. In short, the whole world fell down the rabbit hole.
WIRED spoke to researchers, TikTok creators and experts about conspiracies surrounding what exactly happened, and how so many people bought into the story so willingly. It was the perfect storm: a combination of gamified social platforms, distrust in the media and government, unprecedented levels of conspiratorial thinking, and even a bot influence campaign on social media all played a role. Even now it follows Middleton’s announcement that she has been diagnosed with cancerthe conspiracies have continued.
Until Friday, Middleton was last seen in public on Christmas Day. Kensington Palace later announced that she underwent abdominal surgery and said Middleton spent two weeks in hospital before returning home to recover. Conspiracies surrounding Middleton’s whereabouts had been bubbling online since early January but became mainstream after the palace released a doctored photo that was retracted by AP, Reuters and other agencies. “They were dishonest and published at least one doctored photo. So at that point, of course, they lose all credibility,” Melissa Ryan, a disinformation researcher, tells WIRED.
It seemed like the entire internet quickly became obsessed with figuring out what happened.
Videos discussing this issue exploded on social media platforms. TikTok researchers and content creators, along with their massive fan base, were obsessed with dimples in grainy photos, images of hands, and AI-enhanced images. Creators who normally don’t post about royals jumped on the bandwagon because of the level of involvement in this topic. These conspiracies were also able to flourish because of the royal family’s unwillingness to speak openly about what’s happening, creating a void that was quickly filled by everyone from TIkTok creators to blue-checkered scammers on X and dyed-in-the-wool conspirators. on Telegram.
“The subject is an ideal mainstream conspiracy theory: the stakes are low, it’s easy to become obsessed with, and it’s endlessly iterative,” Caro Claire Burke, a journalist and TikTok creator based in Virginia, tells WIRED. “There is no simpler build-your-own-adventure story than the one that can be built around a woman who is simultaneously famous and unknown. She is the perfect lightning rod for these kinds of obsessions.” Burke, a producer at Katie Couric Media, recently transitioned from posting tradwomen to Kate Middleton; she has seen tremendous engagement on these posts, including several videos that have each been viewed more than 2.5 million times and one that has been viewed more than 6 million times – far more than any of her previous videos.
While the volume of conspiracy content surrounding Middleton has decreased dramatically since her statement was released Friday, it is far from disappearing completely. Conspiracies quickly spread on Telegram channels and