Experts say the explosion of misinformation in New Zealand could have devastating consequences.
It comes after Wellington's protests came to a fiery chaotic end on Wednesday afternoon.
It started as an anti-mandate protest but it exploded into something else during its 23-day-long occupation of Parliament.
Many of those protesters were equipped with rocks and bricks, but they were also armed with an arsenal of false information.
"One day it will be our job to try and understand how a group of people could succumb to such dangerous and wild mis and disinformation," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
Misinformation is false claims that weren't created with the intention of causing harm. Meanwhile, disinformation is false information that is intended to cause harm.
For months, it had been brewing not just in Wellington but also across the country. Some felt ignored or coerced, others thought they were being lied to.
"It's not a vaccine, it's a genetically-modified poison," one woman in Northland said.
The theories are endless, from claims the COVID vaccine injects metal in arms, to some even falsely suggesting a link between the jab and HIV.
Those who spread these theories are often convinced they are correct.
"There are no sick people in Wellington. We have been down there for days. Now we are up here and we aren't wearing them here either, we're not wearing masks, any of us," a man in Northland said.
Misinformation and disinformation aren't new in Aotearoa, but what is new is the volume and viciousness of it.
"It will have a long-term impact on social cohesion in Aotearoa New Zealand," says Sanjana Hattotuwa from Te Punaha Matatini.
Most of the theories are spread online on apps like Telegram, and Newshub has been on there watching it all unfold.
On the app, users can follow dozens of pages like Voices for Freedom or Counterspin Media. Examples of the content published there include everything from suggesting New Zealand doesn't have COVID-19, to reports children are on a vaccine 'hit list', to being injected with toxic serums.
Counterspin Media has 18,000 subscribers and they also broadcast online.
"Mainstream media has become a disease full of spin and propaganda. Here at Counterspin media, we are the cure. We are not 'paid to say'," they said.
These platforms are reaching more and more people. On the first day of the Wellington protest, just as many people were watching their videos as mainstream media.
Hottotuwa has been examining the figures for Te Punaha Matatini.
"One disinformation producer had more views on that livestream than the five leading mainstream media producers combined," he says.
Sociologist Paul Spoonley says what we're seeing here started in the United States and spread.
He says those watching and sharing fake news were validated by former US President Donald Trump.
"We're seeing flags, we're seeing signs, we're seeing pro-Trump signs, and when you source a lot of the views in Wellington, they are being sourced out of the US."
His worry is the legacy of the Wellington protest will be a message of anger and a feeling of being ignored. Spoonley believes that is the real danger.
"I have always said it doesn't matter how many, as long as there is one person who is prepared to act out these violent threats then we have a problem," he says.
A problem Internet New Zealand says social media giants have to answer for. Chief executive Jordan Carter says it's not just the likes of Telegram and Zello aiding the spread of misinformation, it's the big players too, the ones that attract millions of Kiwis every day.
"It may be that we need to go further than that and some start assigning some liability on these platforms," Carter says.
The Government isn't ruling out an inquiry into the protests and how they started. It may look at the role conspiracy theories played, but regardless of what reviews and reports come from this, the tidal wave of misinformation and disinformation is growing larger.
