In the first part, we identify a network of websites and Facebook groups and pages, which share the same tracker IDs (e.g. In fact, usually conspiracy believers refer to the Illuminati in derogatory terms, whereas instead our research found cases in which people are trying to join this alleged powerful sect and are willing to pay to do so. Not only is this investigation interesting because it combines multiple long-existing conspiracies and prejudices (against elites, Jews, and Freemasons), but also due to its unexpected angle. The false belief is also anchored in the New World Order conspiracy that a small group of powerful individuals with a globalist agenda is secretly scheming to achieve world control. The American Jewish Committee exposed the anti-Semitic aspect of the conspiracy spreading between the two world wars, according to which the Illuminati were a subversive group at the service of Jewish elites who were behind either global capitalism or Soviet communism. In the same year, Augustin Barruel’s “Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism” came out, which promoted the theory that secret societies – including the Illuminati – were behind the French Revolution. The Illuminati then became one of the oldest conspiracy theories when in 1797, physicist John Robison published “Proofs of a Conspiracy”, a polemic book that accused the Illuminati of infiltrating the Freemasonry. Therefore, the ‘lluminatenorden’ sought to promote secular, intellectual, and philanthropic values among elites to influence decision-making. Historically, the Order of the Illuminati referred to a secret society that operated from 1776 to 1785, founded in Bavaria by Adam Weishaupt, a German philosopher and law professor who was strongly inspired by Enlightenment ideals.

The ‘Illuminati’ conspiracy falls under this category and is at the centre of our investigation. In her conspiracy chart, misinformation researcher Abbie Richards places at the highest level of detachment from reality beliefs that “the world is ruled by a supreme shadow elite”, which thus are the most dangerous.

The secret society of illuminati