“I’m not anti-vax, but this COVID-19 thing stinks of shit”
This article examines the role played by social media platforms (Twitter in particular) in the fabrication and dissemination of a discourse opposing health measures in the province of Quebec during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Based on a materialist and actor-network theory approach, it analyzes the narratives opposing the measures that circulated in the Quebec Twittersphere during the first two weeks of the implementation of the restrictive measures imposed by the federal and provincial authorities. In particular, we show that the fabrication and dissemination of a discourse opposed to these measures leads to an ideological syncretism with blurred contours that contributes to the trivialization of ideas traditionally associated with conspiracism that target Canadian scientific and political elites. The study, both of the discourse and of the device that promotes it, shows how this device allows individuals on the fringe of the public sphere to transform themselves into popular influencers and moral techno-entrepreneurs who become the figureheads of a movement opposed to the sanitary measures.