Repeat until true: The big lie as narrative weapon in participatory authoritarianism

Abstract

The term “Big Lie” re-emerged following the 2020 U.S. presidential election, but appears across global contexts where digital technologies amplify politically charged falsehoods. This commentary maps the Big Lie as both discursive weapon and digitally enabled social phenomenon, tracing its genealogy from Plato to today's algorithmically enhanced disinformation campaigns. The Big Lie operates as a narrative weapon creating affective publics organized around shared submission to falsehood. Contemporary digital infrastructure enables what we term participatory authoritarianism, where citizens become active co-producers of authoritarian power through everyday digital practices. This model leverages interactive affordances to outsource propaganda and repression to voluntary participants. By mobilizing users to repeat and defend official narratives, participatory authoritarianism creates information environments where empirical refutation becomes socially costly, revealing how digital technologies weaponize language to exploit democratic vulnerabilities.