The bat as a universal evil. Fake news on the causes of the pandemic and their sources

Abstract

The article describes the evolution of the “bat soup” rumor on the Internet. It outlines the connection of current folklore narratives about “bat soup” with stereotypes of cultural racism outside of China and with hostility towards wealthy consumers of wildfowl and venison in mainland China. The article studies the sources of this rumor, its connection to fake news, and the characteristics of its spreading in Russian-speaking segment of the Internet. A surge of interest in the “bat soup” rumor occurred in January 2020. After a series of contradictions of the rumor in news media worldwide the circulation of its aggressive versions diminished somewhat. The wide distribution of the “bat soup” motif led to using of the concise version of it to mark, in a neutral/ironic way, the start of the pandemic. In China one of the consequences of the circulation of the rumor was that bats became a symbol of wild animals endangered due to consumption of them by humans. In Russian-speaking segment of the Internet the “bat soup” motif was mostly exploited in jokes and anecdotes.