 QAnon is a story that involves the dark web, secret cabals, cryptic messages, biblical prophecies, digital warriors, diabolical villains, conspiracy theories, and presidential politics. Some have called QAnon a cult, a political movement, a burgeoning new religion, and the conspiracy theory du jour. In some respects, it could be any, or all of those things. Or it could be a fantastical experiment of mass manipulation by a rogue social scientist, or rogue state. So, what is it and why should we care? QAnon has induced acts of violence and made its way into national politics, and therefore it warrants our attention. What is QAnon: An “anon” is a person posting on the internet anonymously. “Q” is an unknown person or persons who claims to have a Top Secret “Q clearance” in the government. We first heard from the anonymous Q with a cryptic post on October 28, 2017 on a forum thread called “Calm Before the Storm”, on the website “4chan”. 4chan lives on the fringes of the internet where anonymity rules, and conspiracy theories and illicit activities run rampant. The QAnon conspiracy theory appears to have morphed out of several other “anon” postings, such as “FBIAnon”, “CIAAnon”, “WH Insider Anon”, and “High Level Insider Anon”. These posters were all pro-Trump, and perpetrated many false claims and derogatory comments about Hillary Clinton in the runup to the 2016 presidential election. During October 2016, websites such as 4chan helped to spread the conspiracy theory known as “Pizzagate”. In case you have forgotten about this little piece of hilarity, it was a far-right theory that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex ring out of the basement of a pizzeria called Comet Ping Pong. This theory got a lot of buzz on the far reaches of the internet and has never gone away.  The QAnon theory contends that a secret shadow government, known as the “deep state”, is controlled by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George Soros, and a cabal of global liberal elites. According to the theory, the deep state runs a global child sex trafficking ring, and practices satanism, cannibalism and other evils. Sound plausible? In the QAnon theory, Donald Trump is a lone heroic warrior, elected to defeat the deep state. It is up to the mysterious Q to tell the world about Trump’s top-secret war against the deep state, and to rally support behind the president. The eventual destruction of the global cabal can only be accomplished with the support of patriots who search for meaning in Q’s clues (Q Drops). Q has posted over 2000 times to the image boards of 4chan, 8chan, and 8kun. 8 chan was shut down for promoting violence and misinformation, and now most of Q’s posts appear on the website 8kun.  Investigative journalists from NBC News dug into the origins of Q and QAnon. (https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/how-three-conspiracy-theorists-took-q-sparked-qanon-n900531). The investigation determined that three people took the original Q post and expanded it across multiple platforms to build internet followings for profit. This seems to me to be the most likely scenario. The three individuals involved deny this, and the identity of the original Q remains a mystery.  QAnon Philosophy: QAnon rejects mainstream institutions, ignores government officials (they are corrupt), despises mainstream media for spreading “Fake News”, and champions unfettered free speech on the internet. Some of Q’s favorite topics include God, Pizzagate, the wickedness of the elite, the mass hysteria over the coronavirus (promoted by the Democrats to dethrone President Trump), and Dr. Fauci (a deep state puppet). The rallying cry for QAnon followers is “WWG1WGA” (where we go one, we go all). It’s an expression of solidarity which celebrates unity and patriotism. Other favorite Q themes that followers have rallied around include:
QAnon followers are not a simple homogeneous group, and the motives of its adherents are divergent. The many twists and turns to the theory have appeal to many, particularly conspiracy theorists. But most followers are clearly right-wing and pro Trump. One major group of followers focuses on the religious aspects of QAnon. In the language of evangelical Christians, Q quotes bible verses and promotes the Great Awakening. The other major group of followers clings to the notion of the deep state, with Q being a government insider helping Trump to defeat it. They see significance in words beginning with the letter Q spoken or tweeted by Donald Trump. According to Jared Holt, a researcher for Right Wing Watch, the QAnon theory “provides Trump’s most fervent supporters a way to explain away any scandal or slip-up the president may face”. Even typo filled tweets and incoherent rambles are viewed as proofs that the president is in on the conspiracy. It solidifies a portion of Trump’s base that will not be swayed by anything that he says or does. QAnon Goes Mainstream: Q may be anonymous, but the QAnon movement certainly isn’t. In a few short years QAnon has grown from a few fringe chat rooms and message boards to nearly every major social media and commercial platform on the internet. It encompasses a massive international universe of blogs, proprietary websites, podcasts, and all the mainstream social media platforms, including Redditt, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. According to an investigation conducted by NBC News, Facebook has been key to QAnon’s growth, mainly through its “Groups” feature. A recent internal Facebook investigation has uncovered thousands of groups and pages, with millions of members and followers that support QAnon. (https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/qanon-groups-have-millions-members-facebook-documents-show-n1236317). QAnon is not just active in the United States. According to an investigation by the Guardian, there are active groups of QAnon followers all over Europe, Australia, South America, Canada, Mexico, and several of the former Soviet bloc countries. (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/11/qanon-facebook-groups-growing-conspiracy-theory).  Along with the massive social media presence, entrepreneurs are cashing in on the QAnon movement. Many are generating revenue from their podcasts, YouTube channels, apps, books, newsletters, and social media platforms dedicated to QAnon. There are others selling millions of dollars worth of Q and QAnon branded merchandise online and at right-wing campaign rallies. Just Google “QAnon merchandise” and you’ll find your pick of hats, T-shirts, belt buckles, coffee mugs, buttons, stickers, and baby bibs! QAnon gets a Political Endorsement: August 19, 2020 will hold a special place on the QAnon calendar going forward. President Trump has occasionally retweeted posts from QAnon affiliated accounts, but this is the first time that he directly responded to questions about QAnon. At a news conference, the president was asked about the QAnon movement, to which he responded, “I don’t know much about the movement, other than I understand they like me very much; which I appreciate.” He went on to say that “I heard these are people who love our country.” When told by the reporter the basic premise behind the QAnon theory, the president responded by asking “Is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing? If I can help save the world from problems, I’m willing to do it. I’m willing to put myself out there. And we are actually saving the world…” As you can well image, within minutes QAnon affiliated social media accounts across the world came to life to celebrate Trump’s comments as validation of their views. (https://apnews.com/535e145ee67dd757660157be39d05d3f).  QAnon supporters have been showing up at Trump rallies since 2018. But only in recent months has their political influence been felt. According to Brian Dunning of the “Skeptoid Podcast”, at least 60 candidates running for Congress had expressed their belief that QAnon is real. Last week QAnon adherent and self-described Islamophobe Laura Loomer, won the GOP nomination for Florida’s 21st Congressional District. Earlier this month Marjorie Taylor Green won the GOP nomination for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. Ms. Green is a vocal supporter of QAnon and has racist views condemned by many mainstream Republicans. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/11/marjorie-taylor-greene-georgia-qanon/ ). Both women received praise and congratulations for their victories by President Trump. As the politics of QAnon goes mainstream, there are thousands of digital soldiers behind the scenes using social media and fringe message boards to wage information warfare. They are intent on influencing the 2020 elections to keep Donald Trump in power. How many of these QAnon social media accounts do you think are run by trolls controlled by the Russian government? Many I would suspect.  The Darkside: Yahoo News disclosed the existence of an FBI intelligence bulletin, dated May 30, 2019, which described conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists as a growing threat. (https://news.yahoo.com/fbi-documents-conspiracy-theories-terrorism-160000507.html). One of the prominent conspiracy theories mentioned in the bulletin was QAnon. The bulletin warns that these conspiracy theories may very likely motivate some domestic extremists to engage in criminal or violent behavior. So, what landed QAnon on the FBI domestic terrorism bulletin? The FBI cited a number of arrests related to QAnon in which death threats and acts of violence were involved. These included an armed stand off between Matthew Phillip Wright and police at the Hoover Dam, and the murder of mob boss Frank Cali at the hands of a QAnon follower. Several social media platforms have been pushing back against QAnon affiliated groups since 2018. Reddit banned several QAnon groups from its platform in 2018 for inciting violence, harassment, and the dissemination of personal information. In July of this year Apple pulled the very popular app “QDrops” from the App Store after it learned more about the conspiracy theory. On July 21, 2020 Twitter announced that it was banning over 7,000 QAnon accounts for breaking its rules around platform manipulation, misinformation and harassment. This is the strongest action yet against QAnon, and Twitter stated that it would no longer recommend QAnon accounts and content, stop such content from appearing in trends and search, and would block QAnon internet links. (https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/qanon-groups-have-millions-members-facebook-documents-show-n1236317). In July TikTok disabled the two most popular QAnon hashtags on its platform. But Facebook is the elephant in the room when it comes to the spread of QAnon. It removed a few accounts and groups in May for “suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior” ahead of the 2020 presidential election. This week Facebook announced that it will restrict QAnon (and other right-wing groups) and will no longer recommend that users join groups supporting it. Short of an outright ban, Facebook said it will only remove groups and accounts outright if they discuss potential violence. Facebook said it is not banning QAnon because the group does not meet rigorous criteria for the platform to designate it a “dangerous organization.” But it is expanding this policy to address the movement because it has “demonstrated significant risks to public safety.” (https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-08-19/facebook-bans-some-but-not-all-qanon-groups-accounts ). So for now, QAnon will continue to proliferate on Facebook and Instagram (owned by Facebook). As one account is shut down others pop up somewhere else on the internet, and this is the key to its growth.  There is a lot more to the QAnon story. Who is this mysterious Q character? How did the QAnon conspiracy theory explode in just a few short years? Who believes in this stuff and why? Most importantly, why doesn’t President Trump distance himself from QAnon, and how much influence will it really have on the upcoming election? From its humble beginnings as a scheme to garner internet traffic, millions of like-minded people have found a rallying point in QAnon.
For a deep dive into the origins of QAnon and who the mysterious Q may be, I refer you to articles referenced above by the NBC News investigative team and the article from The Atlantic. If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: [email protected]. Thanks, Armchair American
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