QAnon

QAnon[lower-alpha 1] (/kjuːəˈnɒn/) is a far-right conspiracy theory[7][8] detailing a supposed secret plot by an alleged "deep state" against President Donald Trump and his supporters.[9] The theory began with an October 2017 post on the anonymous imageboard 4chan by "Q", who was presumably an American individual,[10] but probably became a group of people.[11][12] Q claimed to have access to classified information involving the Trump administration and its opponents in the United States. Analysis by NBC News found that three people took the original Q post and expanded it across multiple media platforms to build internet followings for profit. QAnon was preceded by several similar anonymous 4chan posters such as FBIAnon, HLIAnon (high level insider), CIAAnon, and WH Insider Anon.[13]

For the string instrument, see Qanun (instrument).

US Vice-President Mike Pence with members of the Broward County, Florida SWAT team on November 30, 2018; the man at the left of the image is displaying a red and black "Q" patch used by believers of the QAnon conspiracy theory. The photo was tweeted, removed, and then substituted in Pence's feed.
Detail from photo showing the QAnon patch. The black-and white patch to the left has been reported to be that of the SWAT team. Regulations forbid wearing either patch, and the deputy was reprimanded and removed from the SWAT team as a result.[1]

Q has accused many liberal Hollywood actors, Democratic politicians, and high-ranking officials of being members of an international child sex trafficking ring. Q also claimed that Donald Trump feigned collusion with Russians to enlist Robert Mueller to join him in exposing the ring and preventing a coup d'état by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros.[14][15][16] "Q" is a reference to the Q clearance used by the U.S. Department of Energy. QAnon believers commonly tag their social media posts with the hashtag #WWG1WGA, signifying the motto "Where We Go One, We Go All".

QAnon adherents began appearing at Trump re-election campaign rallies during the summer of 2018.[17] TV and radio personality Michael "Lionel" Lebron, a promoter of the theory, was granted a photo opportunity with President Trump in the Oval Office on August 24, 2018.[18] Bill Mitchell, a broadcaster who promotes QAnon, attended a White House "social media summit" in July 2019.[8][19]

At an August 2019 rally, a man warming up the crowd before President Trump spoke used the QAnon motto "where we go one, we go all," later denying that it was a QAnon reference. This occurred hours after the publication of a report stating that the FBI determined QAnon to be a potential source of domestic terrorism, the first time that a fringe conspiracy theory had been so rated by the agency.[20][21] The number of QAnon adherents was unclear, but they had a large presence on social media, particularly Twitter. A Facebook internal analysis reported in August found millions of followers in thousands of groups and pages. Followers had also migrated to dedicated message boards such as Endchan and 8kun, where they organized to wage information warfare to influence the 2020 elections.[22][23] On June 24, 2020, Q exhorted followers to take a "digital soldiers oath," and many did using the Twitter hashtag #TakeTheOath.[24] In July 2020, Twitter banned thousands of QAnon-affiliated accounts and changed its algorithms to reduce the spread of the conspiracy theory.[25]

Theory

The conspiracy theory, disseminated mainly by supporters of Trump as The Storm and The Great Awakening—QAnon's precepts and vocabulary are closely related to the religious concepts of millenarianism and apocalypticism,[26] leading it to be sometimes construed as an emerging religious movement[27][28][29]—has been widely characterized as "baseless",[30][31][32] "unhinged",[33] and "evidence-free".[34] Its proponents have been called "a deranged conspiracy cult"[35] and "some of the Internet's most outré Trump fans".[36]

According to Travis View, who has studied the QAnon phenomenon and written about it extensively for The Washington Post, the essence of the conspiracy theory is that:

"there is a worldwide cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who rule the world, essentially, and they control everything. They control politicians, and they control the media. They control Hollywood, and they cover up their existence, essentially. And they would have continued ruling the world, were it not for the election of President Donald Trump. Now, Donald Trump in this conspiracy theory knows all about this evil cabal's wrongdoing. But one of the reasons that Donald Trump was elected was to put an end to them, basically. And now we would be ignorant of this behind-the-scenes battle of Donald Trump and the U.S. military—that everyone backs him and the evil cabal—were it not for 'Q.' And what 'Q' is—is basically a poster on 4chan, who later moved to 8chan, who reveals details about this secret behind-the-scenes battle, and also secrets about what the cabal is doing and also the mass sort of upcoming arrest events through these posts."[26]

Followers of QAnon also believe that there is an imminent event known as "The Storm" in which thousands of people, members of the cabal, will be arrested, possibly sent to Guantanamo Bay prison or face military tribunals, and the U.S. military will brutally take over the country.[26] The result of "The Storm" will be salvation and a utopia on earth.[37]

History

Background
See also: Pizzagate conspiracy theory
David Goldberg Twitter
@DavidGoldbergNY

Rumors stirring in the NYPD that Huma's emails point to a pedophila ring and @HillaryClinton is at the center. #GoHillary #PodestaEmails23

October 30, 2016[38]

On October 30, 2016, a Twitter account posting white supremacist material which said it was run by a New York lawyer falsely claimed that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) had discovered a pedophilia ring linked to members of the Democratic Party while searching through Anthony Weiner's emails.[39][40] Throughout October and November 2016, WikiLeaks had published John Podesta's emails. Proponents of the theory read the emails and alleged they contained code words for pedophilia and human trafficking.[41][42] Proponents also claimed that Comet Ping Pong was a meeting ground for Satanic ritual abuse.[43]

The story was later posted on fake news websites, starting with Your News Wire, which cited a 4chan post from earlier that year.[39] The Your News Wire article was subsequently spread by pro-Trump websites, including SubjectPolitics.com, which added the claim that the NYPD had raided Hillary Clinton's property.[39] The Conservative Daily Post ran a headline claiming the Federal Bureau of Investigation had confirmed the theory.[44]

Anons

In its most basic sense, an "anon" refers to any anonymous or pseudonymous internet poster.[45]

The concept of anons "doing research" and claiming to disclose otherwise classified information, while a key component of the QAnon conspiracy theory, is by no means exclusive to it. Before Q, a number of so-called anons also claimed to have special government access.

On July 2, 2016, an anonymous poster known as "FBI Anon", a self-described "high-level analyst and strategist" who claimed to have "intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Clinton case", began offering lies about the 2016 investigation into the Clinton Foundation and claimed that Hillary Clinton would be imprisoned if Trump became president. Around that time, another figure known as "HLI Anon", standing for "High Level Insider Anon", hosted long question and answer sessions, dispensing various conspiracy theories, including one that claimed Princess Diana was murdered after trying to stop the September 11 attacks.

Soon after the 2016 United States elections, two anonymous posters known only as "CIA Anon" and "CIA Intern" falsely claimed to be high-ranking CIA officers, and in late August 2017, an account called "WH Insider Anon" offered a supposed preview that something that was "going to go down" regarding leaks that would supposedly affect the Democratic Party.[46]

Origin

A person identifying as "Q Clearance Patriot" first appeared on the /pol/ board of 4chan on October 28, 2017, posting in a thread titled "Calm Before the Storm",[10] which was a reference to Trump's cryptic description of a gathering of United States military leaders he attended as "the calm before the storm".[10][47] "The Storm" is QAnon parlance for an imminent event when thousands of alleged suspects will be arrested, imprisoned and executed.[48] Q later moved to 8chan, citing concerns that the 4chan board had been "infiltrated".[49]

The poster's username implied that the anonymous poster holds Q clearance,[50][51] a United States Department of Energy security clearance required to access to Top Secret information on nuclear weapons and materials.[52]

False claims and beliefs
See also: Murder of Seth Rich conspiracy theory
HRC extradition already in motion effective yesterday with several countries in case of cross border run. Passport approved to be flagged effective 10/30 @ 12:01am. Expect massive riots organized in defiance and others fleeing the US to occur. US M's will conduct the operation while NG activated. Proof check: Locate a NG member and ask if activated for duty 10/30 across most major cities.

—QAnon's first post on the /pol/ message board of 4chan, on October 28, 2017[53]

Q's posting campaign has a history of false, baseless, and unsubstantiated claims. Beginning with the first posts incorrectly predicting Hillary Clinton's imminent arrest and followed by more false allegations, such as claiming that North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un is a puppet ruler installed by the Central Intelligence Agency,[54] Q's posts have become more cryptic and vague, allowing followers to map their own beliefs onto them.[55] By generating a keyboard heatmap of Q's supposedly coded messages, information security researcher Mark Burnett concluded that they "are not actual codes, just random typing by someone who might play an instrument and uses a QWERTY keyboard", adding that "almost all the characters" in the codes alternate between the left and right hands, or the characters are close to each other on the keyboard.[56]

Some of Q's other allegations include his February 16, 2018 false claim that U.S. Representative and former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz hired Salvadoran gang MS-13 to murder DNC staffer Seth Rich,[47][57] and their March 1, 2018 apparent suggestion that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the granddaughter of Adolf Hitler.[58] A July 7, 2018 article published in The Daily Beast also noted that Q falsely claimed that "each mass shooting is a false-flag attack organized by the cabal".[59] Other beliefs held by QAnon adherents include that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, George Soros, and others are planning a coup while simultaneously involved as members of an international child sex trafficking ring. According to this idea, the Mueller investigation is actually a counter-coup led by Donald Trump, who pretended to collude with Russia in order to hire Robert Mueller to secretly investigate the Democrats.[35] Another recurring theme is that certain Hollywood stars are pedophiles, and that the Rothschild family are the leaders of a satanic cult.[15] By interpreting the information fed to them by Q, QAnon adherents come to these conclusions.[35]

On multiple occasions, Q has dismissed his false claims and incorrect predictions as willful misinformation, claiming that "disinformation is necessary".[60] This has led Australian psychologist Stephan Lewandowsky to emphasize the "self-sealing" quality of the conspiracy theory, highlighting its anonymous purveyor's use of plausible deniability and noting that evidence against the theory "can become evidence of [its] validity in the minds of believers".[53] Author Walter Kirn has described Q as an innovator among conspiracy theorists in his approach of enthralling his readers with 'clues' rather than directly presenting his claims: "The audience for internet narratives doesn’t want to read, it wants to write. It doesn’t want answers provided, it wants to search for them."[61]

QAnon theorists have touted drinking bleach (known as MMS, or Miracle Mineral Solution) as a "miracle cure" for coronavirus.[62][63][64][65]

Like in Pizzagate, QAnon followers believe that children are being abducted in large numbers to supply a child trafficking ring. By 2020, some followers began using the Twitter hashtag #SaveTheChildren, co-opting a trademarked name for the child welfare organization Save the Children. Data from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children indicates that the overwhelming majority of missing children are runaways; the second largest cause is abduction by family members, with less than 1% being nonfamily abductions.[66][67]

Identity of "Q"

There has been much speculation regarding the motive and the identity of the poster, with theories ranging from the poster being a military intelligence officer, to Donald Trump himself, to the posting campaign being an alternate reality game by Cicada 3301.[11] Because 4chan is anonymous and does not allow registration by users, any number of people originally may have posted using the same handle. The poster came to use a frequently changing tripcode to authenticate on 8chan after migrating there as they feared 4chan had been "infiltrated".[28]

The Italian leftist Wu Ming foundation has speculated that QAnon has been inspired by the Luther Blissett persona, which was used by leftists and anarchists to organize pranks, media stunts, and hoaxes in the 1990s. "Blissett" also published the novel Q in 1999.[68]

As Q relies on a tripcode to verify themself, and the tripcode is verified by 8chan's server and not reproducible on other imageboards, Q was not able to post when the website went down following the 2019 El Paso shooting.[69] This apparent conflict of interest, combined with statements by 8chan's founder Fredrick Brennan, the use of a "Q" collar pin by 8chan owner Jim Watkins, and Watkins' financial interest in a QAnon super PAC which advertises on 8chan, have led to widespread speculation that either Watkins or his son, 8chan's administrator Ron Watkins, knows the identity of Q.[28][70] Both deny knowing "Q"'s identity.[28][71]

Analysis

QAnon may best be understood as an example of what historian Richard Hofstadter called in 1964 "The Paranoid Style in American Politics", related to religious millenarianism and apocalypticism.[26] The vocabulary of QAnon echoes Christian tropes—for instance "The Storm" (the Genesis flood narrative or Judgement Day), and "The Great Awakening", which evokes the historical religious Great Awakenings from the early 18th century to the late 20th century. According to one QAnon video, the battle between Trump and "the cabal" is of "biblical proportions", a "fight for earth, of good versus evil." The forthcoming reckoning is said by some QAnon supporters to be a "reverse rapture" which means not only the end of the world as it is now known, but a new beginning as well, with salvation and a utopia on earth for the survivors.[37]

Within less than a year of existence, QAnon became significantly recognized by the general population. According to an August 2018 Qualtrics poll for The Washington Post, 58% of Floridians are familiar enough with QAnon to have an opinion about it. Among those who did have an opinion, most were unfavorable. The average score on the feeling thermometer was just above 20, a very negative rating, and about half of what other political figures enjoy.[36][72] Positive feelings toward QAnon were found to be strongly correlated with being susceptible to conspiracy thinking.[72]

According to a March 2020 Pew survey, 76% of Americans said they had never heard of the QAnon movement. One in five people had heard "a little about it" while 3% said they heard "a lot."[73][74]

Role of anti-Semitism

The conspiracy theory's targeting of George Soros and the Rothschild family has led Jewish-American magazine The Forward as well as The Washington Post to accuse it of containing "striking anti-Semitic elements" and "garden-variety nonsense with racist and anti-Semitic undertones".[75][16] A Jewish Telegraphic Agency article published in August 2018 stated that "although not specifically, some of QAnon's archetypical elements—including secret elites and kidnapped children, among others—are reflective of historical and ongoing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories".[76]

The Anti-Defamation League reported that while "the vast majority of QAnon-inspired conspiracy theories have nothing to do with anti-Semitism", "an impressionistic review" of QAnon tweets about Israel, Jews, Zionists, Rothschilds, and George Soros, "revealed some troubling examples" of antisemitism.[77]

Appeal and disillusionment

Experts have classified the appeal of QAnon as similar to that of religious cults. According to an expert in online conspiracy, Renee DiResta, the QAnon pattern of enticement is similar to that into cults in the pre-Internet era where, as the targeted person was led deeper and deeper into the group's secrets, they become more and more isolated from friends and family outside of the cult.[78] In the Internet age, QAnon virtual communities have little "real world" connection with each other, but online, they can number in the tens of thousands.[78] Rachel Bernstein, an expert on cults who specializes in recovery therapy, says that "What a movement such as QAnon has going for it, and why it will catch on like wildfire, is that it makes people feel connected to something important that other people don't yet know about. ... All cults will provide this feeling of being special." There is no self-correction process within the group, since the self-reinforcing true believers are immune to correction, fact-checking, or counter-speech, which is drowned out in the groupthink of the cult.[78] The cultish quality of QAnon has led some to characterize it as a possible emerging religious movement.[27][28][29] Part of the appeal of QAnon is its game-like quality, in which followers attempt to solve riddles presented in Qdrops by connecting them to Trump speeches and tweets, and other sources.[13] Some followers use a "Q clock" consisting of a wheel of concentric dials to decode clues based on the timing of Qdrops and Trump tweets.[79]

Travis View, a researcher who studies QAnon, says of it that it is as addictive as a video game, and offers the "player" the appealing possibility of being involved in something of world-historical importance. According to View, "You can sit at your computer and search for information and then post about what you find, and Q basically promises that through this process, you are going to radically change the country, institute this incredible, almost bloodless revolution, and then be part of this historical movement that will be written about for generations." View compares this to mundane political involvement in which one's efforts might help to get a state legislator elected. QAnon, says View, competes not in the marketplace of ideas, but in the marketplace of realities.[80]

Nonetheless, some QAnon believers have eventually started to realize that they have been isolated from family and loved ones, and suffer loneliness because of it. For some, this is a pathway to slowly beginning the process of divesting themselves of their cultish beliefs, while for others, the isolation reinforces the benefits they get from belonging to the cult. View says that,

People in the QAnon community often talk about alienation from family and friends. ... Though they typically talk about how Q frayed their relationships on private Facebook groups. But they think these issues are temporary and primarily the fault of others. They often comfort themselves by imagining that there will be a moment of vindication sometime in the near future which will prove their beliefs right. They imagine that after this happens, not only will their relationships be restored, but people will turn to them as leaders who understand what's going on better than the rest of us.[81]

Some Q followers break away when they recognize the content of the theories is not self-consistent, or they see that some of the content is directly aimed at getting donations from a specific audience, such as evangelical or conservative Christians. This then "breaks the spell" the conspiracies had over them. Others start watching Q-debunking videos; one former believer says that the videos "saved" her.[81]

Disillusionment can also come from the failure of the theories' predictions. Q had predicted Republican success in the 2018 US midterm elections, and claimed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was involved in secret work for Trump, with apparent tensions between them a cover. When Democrats made significant gains and Trump fired Sessions, there was disillusionment among many in the Q community.[82][83] Further disillusionment came when the predicted December 5 mass arrest and imprisonment in Guantanamo Bay detention camp of enemies of Donald Trump did not occur, nor did the dismissal of charges against Trump's former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn. For some, these failures began the process of separation from the QAnon cult, while others urged direct action in the form of an insurrection against the government. Such a response to a failed prophecy is not unusual: apocalyptic cults such as Heaven's Gate, the People's Temple, the Manson Family, and Aum Shinrikyo resorted to mass suicide or mass murder when their expectations for revelations or the fulfillment of their prophecies did not come about. Psychologist Robert Lifton calls it "forcing the end". This phenomenon is being seen among some QAnon believers.[81] Travis View echoes the concern that disillusioned QAnon believers might take matters into their own hands[37] as Pizzagate believer Edgar Maddison Welch did in 2016, Matthew Phillip Wright did at Hoover Dam in 2018, and Anthony Comello did in 2019 when he murdered Mafia boss Frank Cali, believing himself to be under the protection of President Trump.

Prominent QAnon follower Liz Crokin, who in 2018 asserted that John F. Kennedy Jr. faked his death and is now Q,[84] stated in February 2019 that she was losing patience in Trump to arrest the supposed members of the child sex ring, suggesting that the time was approaching for "vigilante justice."[85] Other QAnon followers have adopted the Kennedy theory, asserting that a Pittsburgh man named Vincent Fusca is Kennedy in disguise and would be Trump's 2020 running mate. Some attended 2019 Independence Day celebrations in Washington expecting Kennedy to appear.[86][87]

Role in U.S. elections

Hiding the "Q" at Trump campaign rally
Man wearing "We Are Q" shirt at Trump rally in New Hampshire

QAnon supporters claim that they were asked to cover up their "Q" identifiers and other QAnon-related symbols at a Trump campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, on August 15, 2019. Although one person who was asked to turn his "Q" shirt inside-out when he entered the rally identified the person who asked him to do so as a Secret Service agent, the agency denied this was the case, saying in an e-mail to The Washington Post, "The U.S. Secret Service did not request, or require, attendees to change their clothing at an event in New Hampshire." QAnon supporters also claim that their visibility at Trump rallies has been suppressed for months.[88]

Trump campaign video

In August 2019, a video posted online by "Women for Trump" late in July was reported to include "Q"s on two campaign signs. The first sign, which said "Make America Great Again", had a "Q" taped to it in the corner. The other side, "Women for Trump" had the "O"s in "Women" and "for" pasted over with "Q"s. The images which included the altered signs were clearly taken at a Trump campaign rally, which have increasingly attracted adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory, so it is unknown if those particular signs were selected for inclusion deliberately or not.[89] The video has since been taken down.[90]

QAnon accounts spread Trump's disinformation

In July 2020, Business Insider reported that according to Media Matters for America, a left-leaning media monitoring group, the Trump re-election campaign relied on a network of QAnon-related accounts to spread disinformation and propaganda on social media, including Twitter. An analysis of 380,000 tweets sent between early April and the end of May 2020, and another of the most popular words used by 1,000 accounts, showed that the QAnon network "is playing a key role in generating and spreading Trump's propaganda."[91]

2019 congressional candidates

Two people who declared themselves as Republican congressional candidates in 2019 expressed interest in QAnon theories. Matthew Lusk, a Florida candidate, told The Daily Beast he was not a "brainwashed cult member," although he said QAnon theories are a "legitimate something" and constitute a "very articulate screening of past events, a very articulate screening of present conditions, and a somewhat prophetic divination of where the political and geopolitical ball will be bouncing next."[92] Danielle Stella, running as a Republican to unseat Ilhan Omar in Minnesota, wore a "Q" necklace in a photo she tweeted[93] and twice used the hashtag #WWG1WGA, a reference to the QAnon motto "where we go one, we go all." Her Twitter account "liked" responses from QAnon believers who acknowledged the necklace, and the account follows some prominent QAnon believers. A former campaign aide asserted that Stella was merely posing as a QAnon believer to attract voter support.[94][95]

2020 U.S. electoral candidates

On May 19, 2020, Jo Rae Perkins, the winner of the Republican Senate primary for Oregon, posted a tweet with a video on the night of her primary victory that shows her holding up a WWG1WGA sticker, reciting its meaning, and thanking Q and the Anons.[96][97]

On June 9, 2020, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a businesswoman, won the most votes in the first round of the Republican primary for Georgia's 14th Congressional District seat in the United States House of Representatives. Greene has an extensive history of supporting QAnon on Facebook and Twitter. Months into the Trump presidency, she stated in a video, “There's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president to do it."[98] She has also made racist and anti-Semitic statements, which resulted in Republican leaders such as Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise to condemn her remarks.[99][100] She won an August 11 runoff to become the nominee in the heavily Republican district.[101] President Donald Trump endorsed her candidacy the following morning.[102][103]

On June 30, 2020, incumbent Republican U.S. Representative Scott Tipton lost a primary for Colorado's 3rd congressional district to Lauren Boebert in an upset. Boebert expressed tentative support for QAnon in an interview, but after winning the primary, attempted to distance herself from those statements, saying "I'm not a follower."[104][105]

In July 2020, Business Insider reported that, "At least 10 GOP Congressional candidates have signaled their support for the QAnon movement."[91]

Influence

Reactions

On November 26, 2017, President Donald Trump retweeted a tweet from Twitter account @MAGAPILL, a self-styled "official President Donald Trump accomplishment list" and a major proponent of the conspiracy theory, less than a month after QAnon first started posting.[36] On December 28, the Russian government-funded television network RT aired a segment discussing "QAnon revelations", referring to the anonymous poster as a "secret intelligence operative inside the Trump administration known by QAnon".[51]

On January 9, 2018, Fox News commentator Sean Hannity shared QAnon-related material on his Twitter account.[51] On March 13, Operation Rescue vice president and anti-abortion activist Cheryl Sullenger referred to QAnon as a "small group of insiders close to President Donald J. Trump" and called his internet postings the "highest level of intelligence to ever be dropped publicly in our known history".[106][107] On March 15, Kiev-based Rabochaya Gazeta, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Ukraine, published an article calling QAnon a "military intelligence group".[108] On March 31, U.S. actress Roseanne Barr appeared to promote the conspiracy theory, which was subsequently covered by CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.[109][110][111][112]

While the conspiracy theory was initially promoted by Alex Jones and Jerome Corsi,[47] it was reported by Right Wing Watch that they had both ceased to support QAnon by May 2018, declaring the source to now be "completely compromised".[113] However, in August 2018, Corsi reversed course and stated that he "will comment on and follow QAnon when QAnon is bringing forth news", adding that "in the last few days, QAnon has been particularly good".[114]

On June 26, 2018, WikiLeaks publicly accused QAnon of "leading anti-establishment Trump voters to embrace regime change and neo-conservatism".[115] Two days later, the whistleblower organization shared an analysis by Internet Party president Suzie Dawson, claiming that QAnon's posting campaign is an "intelligence agency-backed psyop" aiming to "round up people that are otherwise dangerous to the Deep State (because they are genuinely opposed to it) usurp time & attention, & trick them into serving its aims".[116]

On June 28, 2018, a Time magazine article listed the anonymous "Q" among the 25 Most Influential People on the Internet in 2018. Counting more than 130,000 related discussion videos on YouTube, Time cited the wide range of this conspiracy theory and its more prominent followers and spreading news coverage.[117] On July 4, the Hillsborough County Republican Party shared on its official Facebook and Twitter accounts a YouTube video on QAnon, calling QAnon a "mysterious anonymous inside leaker of deep state activities and counter activities by President Trump". The posts were then deleted.[118][36]

On August 1, 2018, following the en masse presence of QAnon supporters at the July 31 Trump rally in Tampa, Florida,[35][119] MSNBC news anchors Hallie Jackson, Brian Williams, and Chris Hayes dedicated a portion of their respective television programs to the conspiracy theory.[120][121][122] PBS NewsHour also ran a segment dedicated to the conspiracy theory the following day.[123] On August 2, Washington Post editorial writer Molly Roberts stated: "The storm QAnon truthers predict will never strike because the conspiracy that obsesses them doesn’t exist. But while they wait for it, they’ll try to whip up the winds, and the rest of us will struggle to find shelter."[124] On August 4, former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was asked to comment on the conspiracy theory in his "ask me anything" session on the /r/The Donald subreddit. In response to the question "is Q legit?", Spicer answered "no".[125] On August 24, President Donald Trump hosted William "Lionel" Lebron, a leading promoter of QAnon, in the Oval Office for a photo op.[126][127]

On July 4, 2020, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn posted a video to his Twitter account of him leading others in an oath with the QAnon motto, "Where we go one, we go all."[128][129] Flynn's attorney, Sidney Powell, denied the oath related to QAnon, saying it was merely a statement engraved on a bell on John F. Kennedy's sailboat. However, during preceding days numerous QAnon followers had taken the same so-called "digital soldier oath" on Twitter, using the same #TakeTheOath hashtag as Flynn had.[130][131]

In August 2020, after far-right candidate Majorie Taylor Greene won a primary runoff election in Georgia, Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, denounced QAnon, calling it a "fabrication."[132] Trump campaign staffer Matt Wolking fired back at the Congressman, saying that "he should condemn the Steele Dossier and conspiracy theories promoted by Democrats."[133]

Incidents

Publishing of personal information

On March 14, 2018, Reddit banned one of its communities discussing QAnon, /r/CBTS_Stream, for "encouraging or inciting violence and posting personal and confidential information".[134] Following this, some followers moved to Discord.[135] Several other communities were formed for discussion of QAnon, leading to further bans on September 12, 2018 in response to these communities "inciting violence, harassment, and the dissemination of personal information", which led to thousands of adherents regrouping on Voat,[136] a Switzerland-based Reddit clone that has been described as a hub for the alt-right.[137][138]

Tucson cement plant incident

In May 2018, Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer livestreamed a Facebook video from the site of a Tucson cement plant, asserting, "This is a child sex trafficking camp that no one wants to talk about, that no one wants to do nothing about." The video was viewed 650,000 times over the ensuing week. Tucson police inspected the plant without finding evidence of criminal activity. Meyer then occupied a tower on the property for nine days, until reaching agreement with police to leave. He later returned to the tower in July, whereupon he was arrested for trespassing. Meyer referenced QAnon and the #WWG1WGA hashtag on his Facebook page.[139][140][141]

Hoover Dam incident
Matthew Wright’s armored vehicle used to block a bridge over the Hoover Dam in Nevada.

On June 15, 2018, Matthew Phillip Wright of Henderson, Nevada, was arrested on terrorism and other charges for driving an armored truck,[142] containing an AR-15 and handgun, to the Hoover Dam and blocking traffic for 90 minutes.[143] He said he was on a mission involving QAnon: to demand that the Justice Department "release the OIG report" on the conduct of FBI agents during the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.[144][12][30] Since a copy of the OIG report had been released the day before, the man had been motivated by a Q "drop" which claimed the released version of the OIG report had been heavily modified and that Trump possessed a more damning version but had declined to release it. In video recorded inside his armored truck, Wright expressed disappointment that Trump had not honored a "duty" to "lock certain people up," asking him to "uphold your oath."[30][145]

QDrops app

An app called "QDrops" which promoted the conspiracy theory was published on the Apple App Store and Google Play. It became the most popular paid app in the "entertainment" section of Apple's online store in April 2018, and the tenth most popular paid app overall. On July 15, 2018, Apple pulled the app after an inquiry from NBC News.[146]

Targeting of Michael Avenatti
Michael Avenatti Twitter
@MichaelAvenatti

We are trying to identify the man in this picture, which was taken outside my office yesterday (Sun) afternoon. Please contact @NewportBeachPD if you have any details or observed him. We will NOT be intimidated into stopping or changing our course. #Basta https://pic.twitter.com/YIKS6D0Grq

July 30, 2018[147]

On July 29, 2018, Q posted a link to Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti's website and photos of his Newport Beach, California, office building, along with the message, "Buckle up!". The anonymous poster then shared the picture of an as-of-yet unidentified man, appearing to be holding a cellphone in one hand, and a long, thin object in the other, standing in the street near Avenatti's office, adding that a message "had been sent". This sparked an investigation by the Newport Beach Police Department. On July 30, Avenatti asked his Twitter followers to contact the Newport Beach Police Department if they "have any details or observed" the man in the picture.[148][149][150]

Harassment of Jim Acosta

At a Trump rally in Tampa, Florida on July 31, 2018, Trump supporters exhibited hostile behavior toward CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta. Exponents of QAnon-related theories were at the rally.[151]

The next day, David Martosko of The Daily Mail asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders whether the White House encouraged the support of "QAnon fringe groups". Sanders denounced "any group that would incite violence against another individual", without specifically responding to the QAnon mention.[152] Sanders added that President Trump "certainly doesn't support groups that would support that type of behavior".[153][154]

Grass Valley Charter School fundraiser

The Blue Marble Jubilee fundraising event at Grass Valley Charter School in Grass Valley, California scheduled for May 11, 2019, was canceled as a precaution after a tweet by former FBI head James Comey on April 27 using the hashtag #FiveJobsIveHad, in which the first letters of the jobs were GVCSF, was interpreted by QAnon followers as a veiled reference to the Grass Valley Charter School Foundation, suggesting that Comey planned to stage a "false flag" terror attack at the event; the hashtag was also interpreted by QAnon adherents as an anagram of "five jihads", and the time stamp on the post was related to the 9-11 attacks. The police and the FBI received warnings, in addition to the school, which decided not to take the risk of internet vigilantes attending "to guard the place", as a police sergeant put it.[155][156]

Murder of Frank Cali

Anthony Comello of Staten Island, New York, was charged with the March 2019 murder of Gambino crime family underboss Frank Cali. According to his defense attorney, Comello had become obsessed with QAnon theories, believing Cali was a member of a "deep state," and was convinced he "was enjoying the protection of President Trump himself" to place Cali under citizen's arrest. Confronting Cali outside his Staten Island home, Comello allegedly shot Cali ten times. At his first court appearance, Comello displayed QAnon symbols and phrases and "MAGA forever" scrawled on his hand in pen.[157][158] Comello had also posted material on Instagram praising Fox News personalities such as Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Jeanine Pirro.[159]

FBI domestic terrorism assessment

An FBI "Intelligence Bulletin" memo from the Phoenix Field Office dated May 30, 2019 identified QAnon-driven extremists as a domestic terrorism threat, the first time a fringe conspiracy theory had been labelled as such. The memo cited a number of arrests related to QAnon, some of which had not been publicized before. The memo says that "The FBI assesses these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts." According to testimony before Congress in May by the assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism director, Michael G. McGarrity, the Bureau divides domestic terrorism threats into four primary categories, "racially motivated violent extremism, anti-government/anti-authority extremism, animal rights/environmental extremism, and abortion extremism," which includes both pro-choice and anti-abortion extremists. The fringe conspiracy theory threat is closely related to the anti-government/anti-authority subject area.[160][161]

According to the May memo, "This is the first FBI product examining the threat from conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists and provides a baseline for future intelligence products. ... The FBI assesses these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts..."[160][161]

An under-reported QAnon-related incident was mentioned in the memo: the arrest of a California man on December 19, 2018 with bomb-making materials in his car, which he intended to use to "blow up a satanic temple monument" in the Springfield, Illinois Capitol rotunda in order to "make Americans aware of Pizzagate and the New World Order, who were dismantling society."[160]

Reactions from QAnon followers ranged from suggesting that the memo was a fake, calling for the firing of FBI Director Christopher A. Wray for working against Trump, to the idea that the memo was actually a "wink-and-a-nod" way of attracting attention to the conspiracy theory, and tricking the media into asking Trump about it.[162] At a Trump re-election rally some hours after the existence of the memo was revealed, Brandon Straka, a gay man who claims to have been a liberal Democrat but is now a Trump supporter, in a warm-up speech before Trump addressed the crowd, used one of QAnon's primary rallying cries, "Where we go one, we go all" (WWG1WGA). A videographer found numerous QAnon supporters in the crowd, identified by their QAnon shirts showing large "Q"'s or "WWG1WGA".[20]

Digital Soldiers Conference

In August 2019, a "Digital Soldiers Conference" was announced for the following month in Atlanta. The stated purpose was to prepare "patriotic social media warriors" for a coming "digital civil war." The announcement for the event prominently displayed a Q spelled in stars on the blue field of an American flag, and the host of the event had numerous references to QAnon on their Twitter account. Scheduled speakers for the event included former Trump aides Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos, as well as Gina Loudon, a Trump friend and member of his campaign media advisory board, and Bill Mitchell, a radio host and ardent Trump supporter.[163][164] The conference host is CEO of a firm that markets a search engine they assert is free of alleged censorship of conservative views, characterizing it as an "intelligence enterprise" with high-level White House connections, telling a reporter, "you don’t know who you’re fucking with" and denying the Q flag was a reference to QAnon.[165]

Trump retweets QAnon video

On September 9, 2019, United States President Donald Trump retweeted a video from the QAnon-promoting Twitter account "The Dirty Truth". The video criticized former FBI director James Comey.[166] Shortly after Christmas 2019, Trump retweeted over one dozen QAnon followers.[167]

Tintagel flag

In January 2020, John Mappin (also affiliated with Turning Point UK), began to fly a Q flag at the Camelot Castle hotel near to Tintagel Castle in England.[168] Advocacy group Hope not Hate said, "Mappin is an eccentric figure, considered outlandish even by his fringe rightwing peers. This childish ploy is a weak attempt at getting attention for himself and his marginal Turning Point UK organisation, and is better off being ignored."[169]

Jessica Prim arrest

In April 2020, Jessica Prim was arrested carrying several knives after live-streaming her attempt to "take out" presidential nominee Joe Biden. Prim was arrested in New York City on a pier where she appeared to have been trying to get to the U.S. Navy Hospital Ship Comfort. There were QAnon conspiracies revolving around the ship believing it to be used by a cabal of pedophiles. During her arrest, Prim was shown reportedly crying and asked police "Have you guys heard about the kids?".[170]

Prior to the arrest, Prim created a Facebook post stating that Hillary Clinton and Biden “need to be taken out.” and that "Hillary Clinton and her assistant, Joe Biden and Tony Podesta need to be taken out in the name of Babylon!" Prim wrote. "I can’t be set free without them gone. Wake me up!!!!!"[170]

Prim's Facebook page was filled with references to QAnon. She encouraged her Facebook followers to check out QAnon "clues". In a video posted just hours before her arrest, Prim ranted about a video that she believed depicted Hillary Clinton and an aide murdering a child.[170][171]

Facebook removal of QAnon-related content

On May 5, 2020, Facebook announced its removal of 5 pages, 20 accounts, and 6 groups linked to "individuals associated with the QAnon network" as part of an investigation into "suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior" ahead of the 2020 United States election.[172][173]

Michael Flynn swears an oath using QAnon slogan

Over the Fourth of July weekend in 2020, Michael Flynn—the former lieutenant general, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and National Security Advisor to Donald Trump—posted a video online in which he is seen leading a small group in a generic oath of office, similar to that used to swear-in members of Congress. At the end of the generic oath, Flynn and the group recite the QAnon slogan "Where we go one, we go all!" Analysts says that the oath is part of the QAnon attempt to organize "digital soldiers" for the political and social apocalypse they see coming. Flynn's apparent declaration of allegiance to QAnon makes him the most prominent former government official to endorse the conspiracy theory, although Donald Trump has tweeted various QAnon-related phrases without actually mentioning the movement.[174]

OANN White House Correspondent

In July 2020, the media watchdog Media Matters reported that Chanel Rion—the chief White House correspondent for the One America News Network—had appeared on a QAnon streaming program and asserted Q's existence, stating "Q is anonymous for a reason, for a very good reason, and I think that people need to respect that."[175]

Twitter removal of QAnon content

On July 21, 2020, Twitter announced it was banning over 7,000 accounts in connection with the QAnon conspiracy theory for coordinated amplification of fake news and conspiracy theories. In a press release, Twitter said, "We've been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm. In line with this approach, this week we are taking further action on so-called 'QAnon' activity across the service." It also said that the actions may apply to over 150,000 accounts.[176][177]

gollark: Ah, I see.
gollark: Let me check the ArchLinuxARM page.
gollark: There are a few, but unfortunately software support is worse.
gollark: There are cheaper or more powerful SBCs.
gollark: I said performance per dollar.

See also
  • Moral panic — Feeling of fear spread among many people that some evil threatens the well-being of society.
  • Apophenia – tendency to mistakenly perceive connections and meaning between unrelated things
  • John Titor – anonymous Internet personage active 2000–2001 who made several failed predictions about the future[178]
  • List of conspiracy theories
  • Nostradamus – 16th-century French reputed seer who published cryptic poetic quatrains in Les Prophéties, allowing for subjective interpretations[179]
  • Ong's Hat – internet conspiracy alternate reality game[180]
  • Operation Mockingbird – alleged CIA operation to manipulate the media which is occasionally referenced in the QAnon conspiracy theory
  • Secret decoder ring – promotional items by radio and TV programs that tap into a common fascination with secret codes

References

Informational notes

  1. The term originally referred to the anonymous poster "Q", but some media outlets have started to use the compound "QAnon" as a collective term for either the conspiracy theory or the community driving and discussing it.

Citations

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