Online conspiracy theorists have turned a group of undefined proposals from an influential organization into a powerful viral war cry.
What is the real truth behind the "Great Reset"?
Adherents spin dark tales of an authoritarian socialist world government run by powerful capitalists and politicians - a secret cabal that communicates plans around the world.
Despite all the contradictions in that last sentence, thousands of netizens have latched onto this latest version of an old conspiracy theory - updated for the age of Covid.
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Where did it come from?
Like many other popular conspiracy theories, this one started with a grain of truth.
In June 2020, Prince of Wales Charles and the head of the annual Davos summit launched an initiative calling for the pandemic to be seen as an opportunity for what they called "The Great Reset of the Global Economy".
Grand launch video he interspersed images of a world in chaos - a dead whale, a hurricane, a kangaroo caught in a fire - with a speech by Prince Charles.
"We have an incredible opportunity to create entirely new sustainable industries," the prince said.
"The time to do something is now."
Another founder of the initiative is Professor Klaus Schwab, head of the World Economic Forum, (VEF), which organizes an annual summit in a Swiss ski resort for some of the richest and most powerful people in the world.
He is explained the idea behind the "Great Reset" in the article that followed the launch of this initiative:
"The pandemic presents a rare but narrow window to reflect, rethink and reset our world to create a healthier, fairer and more prosperous future."
Exists podcast which is called the Great Reset and even a book of 280 pages.
But the plan is lacking in concrete details.
Professor Schwab talks about a "wealth tax" and ending fossil fuel subsidies.
But the range is huge — the plan covers technology, climate change, the future of work, international security and other topics — and it's hard to figure out exactly what the "Great Reset" might mean in practice.
This lack of clarity, combined with an agenda launched by an influential organization, provided fertile ground for conspiracy theories to flourish.
A conspiracy theory was born
The proposals, along with the VEF itself, have met with legitimate criticism from various sources.
Conservative political figures and media outlets accuse the organization of advocating environmental policies that will harm the economy.
There are also questions about whether unelected figures like Schwab should have the power to lobby so prominently for ideas that could potentially transform the global economy.
The Davos summit is certainly full of powerful people who have a huge influence on world events.
There is also concern about the impact of technology on civil liberties and jobs.
But the real energy on the Internet has not been directed at legitimate political issues—debating fossil fuels and income equality—but has taken the form of absurd and unsubstantiated claims.
The term "Big Reset" has had more than eight million interactions on Facebook and has been shared nearly two million times on Twitter since the initiative was launched, according to research by BBC Monitoring.
Among the most popular posts are baseless claims that the "Great Reset" is a strategic part of a grand conspiracy by the global elite, which somehow planned and managed the Covid-19 pandemic.
In that version, the lockdown measures were not introduced to stop the spread of the virus, but to deliberately lead to economic collapse and the establishment of a socialist world government, which will nevertheless work in favor of the powerful capitalists.
The elusiveness of this conspiracy theory means it has found followers among anti-vaccine activists, anti-lockdown campaigners, New Age healers, and those on the far right as well as the far left.
Melanie Smith, head of analysis at Graphica, which investigates online movements and disinformation, said the rumors were typical of "anti-establishment conspiracy theories".
"The most convoluted of these tend to prove popular with government skeptics from across the political spectrum," she says.
In the hands of various groups of online activists, the "Great Reset" has been transformed - from a call to encourage people to think about a sustainable future to a sinister conspiracy against humanity.
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How did it go viral?
This conspiracy theory started circulating online at the time of the launch of the initiative in June 2020, but it gained more serious momentum in the later period of the year.
The phrase started trending on Twitter on November 15 when a video went viral in which Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the UN session in September he says that the pandemic provided an opportunity for a "reset".
It is not clear whether he was referring to VEF's plan.
But some argued that it was his speech is proof that global leaders are using the pandemic as an excuse to introduce a wide range of socialist and environmental policies.
Thousands of supporters of Donald Trump gave this idea a wind at its back.
They claimed that Trump's victory in the November elections was the only chance to thwart this so-called secret plan.
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What is the historical background?
Most of the narratives being promoted around the Great Reset are not new.
Experts say that there are similar ideas about the emergence of a totalitarian world government in circulation since the sixties of the last century under the comprehensive term New World Order, which itself borrows ideas from 18th-century conspiracy theories.
The "Great Reset" skeptics are repackaging those ideas, inserting new unsubstantiated claims from the Covid era - for example, how vaccines "contain microchips" to "enslave" people.
"Its adaptability and close ties to the New World Order narrative," says Smith, "make it likely that this conspiracy theory will survive the pandemic."
In a video from January, VEF admitted that the messaging regarding the "Great Reset" didn't quite go as planned.
"Frankly speaking, this kind of tagline didn't go down very well" says the narrator.
Reacting to the question of whether the debate has been hijacked by conspiracy theorists, VEF said in a statement: "Conspiracy theories replace reason with fantasy.
"They are a noisy but peripheral part of the public sphere."
"We encourage rational, fact-based debate."
What's next for the "Great Reset"?
Beliefs in conspiracies have begun to creep into discussions of the global response to climate change.
Švab's proposal highlights the implementation of projects greener infrastructure and "greener development".
Smith says online activists who deny the existence of climate change often invoke the "Great Reset" theory to "discredit sustainability and renewable energy initiatives as an elite control agenda."
"The overlap in those conversations could become more pronounced as the issue of climate change becomes more prevalent," she says.
Reporting by Olga Robinson, Shayan Sardarizadeh, Jack Goodman, Christopher Giles and Hugo Williams.
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