During the COVID‐19 pandemic, some groups and individuals rearticulated state power through conspiracy theories. Despite their fringe status, conspiracy theory beliefs can directly animate citizen's engagements with institutions. Drawing on Barkun's ‘conventional’ and ‘stigmatised’ knowledge types, we analyse the appearance of conspiracism in citizen e‐petitions, and their rebuttal by government ministries. Our data are e‐petitions submitted to the House of Representatives in the Parliament of Australia between 2020 and 2021. Petitions and responses are snapshots of pandemic governance in motion: unfolding through contested interpretations of a diverse range of subjects including virology, immunisation and border security. The novel characteristics of conspiracist petitions allow theories to persist, irrespective of their place in wider society: they appropriate e‐petition system affordances, compete directly with institutions and officials, reframe events to maintain narratives over time, and serve as entrepreneurial activity for individual conspiracists. E‐petitions remain an essential democratic forum between citizens and federal parliament but represent challenges for policymaking and government communication in uncertain times.

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议会、请愿书和流行病：澳大利亚联邦电子请愿书系统中的阴谋论，2020−2021 年

在COVID-19大流行期间，一些团体和个人通过阴谋论重新表达国家权力。尽管处于边缘地位，阴谋论信仰可以直接激发公民与机构的互动。借鉴巴昆的“传统”和“污名化”知识类型，我们分析了公民电子请愿中阴谋主义的出现以及政府部门的反驳。我们的数据是 2020 年至 2021 年间向澳大利亚议会众议院提交的电子请愿书。请愿书和回复是正在进行的大流行病治理的快照：通过对包括病毒学、免疫接种和边境安全在内的各种主题的有争议的解释展开。阴谋论者请愿的新颖特征使理论能够持续存在，无论其在更广泛的社会中的地位如何：它们利用电子请愿系统的可供性，直接与机构和官员竞争，重新组织事件以随着时间的推移维持叙述，并作为个人阴谋论者的创业活动。电子请愿仍然是公民和联邦议会之间重要的民主论坛，但在不确定时期对政策制定和政府沟通提出了挑战。