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QAnon flag featuring an American flag defaced with the Q logo alongside the slogan "Where we go one, we go all", at a Second Amendment rally in Richmond, 2020
QAnon[a] (/ˈkjuːənɒn/ KYOO-ə-non or /ˈkjuːænɒn/ KYOO-an-on) is an American political conspiracy theory and political movement. It originated in the American far-right political sphere in 2017.[1] QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". Those claims have been relayed and developed by online communities and influencers. Their core belief is that a cabal of Satanic,[2][3][4] cannibalistic child molesters are operating a global child sex trafficking ring which conspired against Donald Trump.[8] QAnon has direct roots in Pizzagate, an Internet conspiracy theory that appeared one year earlier, but also incorporates elements of many other theories.[9] QAnon has been described as a cult.[9][10]
Followers believe the Trump administration secretly fought the cabal of pedophiles, and would conduct arrests and executions of thousands of cabal members on a day known as "the Storm" or "the Event".[11] QAnon conspiracy believers have named Democratic politicians, Hollywood actors, high-ranking government officials, business tycoons, and medical experts as members of the cabal.[12] QAnon has also claimed that Trump stimulated the conspiracy of Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election to enlist Robert Mueller to join him in exposing the sex trafficking ring, and to prevent a coup d'état by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and George Soros.[13][14] QAnon is described as antisemitic or rooted in antisemitic tropes, due to its fixation on Jewish financier Soros and conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family, a frequent target of antisemites.[15][16]
Although it has its origins in older conspiracy theories, the first post by Q was in October 2017 on the website 4chan. Q claimed to be a high-level government official with Q clearance, with access to classified information about the Trump administration and its opponents.[17] Q soon moved to 8chan, making it QAnon's online home.[18] Q's often cryptic posts became known as "drops", and were collected by aggregator apps and websites. QAnon became a viral phenomenon beyond the internet and turned into a political movement. QAnon followers began to appear at Trump campaign rallies in August 2018,[19] and Trump amplified QAnon accounts on Twitter.[20] QAnon's conspiracy theories have also been relayed by Russian and Chinese state-backed media, social media troll accounts,[25][21][26] and the far-right Falun Gong-associated Epoch Media Group.[32]
Since its emergence in American politics, QAnon spawned movements around the world. The exact number of QAnon adherents is unclear.[4][33] After increased scrutiny of the movement, social media platforms such as Twitter[34] and Facebook[35] began taking action to stop the spread of the conspiracy theory. QAnon followers have perpetrated acts of violence.[36] Members of the movement took part in the 2020 United States presidential election, during which they supported Trump's campaign and waged information warfare to influence voters.[37][38] After Joe Biden won, they were involved in efforts to overturn the results of the election. Associates of Trump, such as Michael Flynn,[42] Lin Wood[47] and Sidney Powell,[53] have promoted QAnon-derived conspiracy theories. When these tactics failed, Trump supporters - many of them QAnon followers - attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The Capitol attack led to a further, more sustained social media crackdown on the movement and its claims.[54][55]
Background
Pizzagate
Main article: Pizzagate conspiracy theory
Protester advancing the Pizzagate conspiracy theory
According to QAnon researcher Mike Rothschild, "while Q has a number of precursor conspiracy theories and scams ... no conspiracy theory feeds more immediately into Q than Pizzagate".[56] The Pizzagate theory began in March 2016 with the leak of Clinton campaigner John Podesta's emails, which promoters of the theory believed contained a secret code detailing child sexual abuse.[57] Pizzagate followers said that high-profile Democrats were sexually abusing children at a Washington, D.C. pizzeria, which led to an armed attack on the establishment by a gunman who believed the conspiracy theory.[58]
The allegations of child sexual abuse and the centrality of the Clinton family to this abuse became a key part of the QAnon belief system,[57] but in time the Clintons' centrality was de-emphasized in favor of more general conspiratorial claims of an alleged worldwide elite of child sex traffickers.[59] Q referred to Pizzagate claims without using the term.[57] QAnon followers often used the hashtag #SaveTheChildren to promote the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.[60] This caused protest from the unrelated non-governmental organization Save the Children.[61]
Influence of 4chan culture
The investigative journalism website Bellingcat called /htg/ or "Human Trafficking General" threads on the /pol/ board of 4chan "the missing link" between Pizzagate and QAnon. Instead of focusing on a limited supply of email material to comb through, the /htg/ culture allowed users to actively participate in the imagined storylines. A key /htg/ poster was Anonymous 5 (also known as "Frank"), who claimed to be a child prostitution investigator. But the lack of a coherent narrative was a constraint on the /htg/ trend, and it never achieved Pizzagate's popularity.[62]
The main tenets of the QAnon ideology were already present at 4chan before Q's appearance, including claims that Hillary Clinton was directly involved in a pedophile ring, that Robert Mueller was secretly working with Trump, and that large-scale military tribunals were imminent. His posts specifically targeted individuals who were hated in the community beforehand, namely Clinton, Barack Obama, and George Soros. Bellingcat says that the idea of the "Storm" was copied from another poster named Victory of the Light, who predicted the "Event", in which mass, televised arrests of the "Cabal" were forthcoming.[62]
Previous "anons"
In its most basic sense, an "anon" is an anonymous or pseudonymous Internet poster.[63] The concept of anons "doing research" and claiming to disclose otherwise classified information, while a key component of the QAnon conspiracy theory, is not exclusive to it. Q was preceded by so-called anons who also claimed to have special government access. On July 2, 2016, the anonymous poster "FBIAnon", a self-described "high-level analyst and strategist" who claimed to have "intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Clinton case", began posting false information about the 2016 investigation into the Clinton Foundation and claimed that Hillary Clinton would be imprisoned if Trump became president. Around that time, "HLIAnon", standing for "High-Level Insider Anon", hosted long question-and-answer sessions, dispensing various conspiracy theories, including that Princess Diana was murdered after trying to stop the September 11 attacks. Soon after the 2016 United States elections, two anonymous posters, "CIAAnon" and "CIAIntern", falsely claimed to be high-ranking Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers, and in late August 2017, "WHInsiderAnon" offered a supposed preview that something that was "going to go down" regarding leaks that would affect the Democratic Party.[64]
Origin and spread
A 4chan user named "Q Clearance Patriot" first appeared on the site's /pol/ board on October 28, 2017, posting in a thread titled "Calm Before the Storm",[1] a phrase Trump had previously used to describe a gathering of American military leaders he attended.[1] "The Storm" later became QAnon parlance for an imminent event in which thousands of alleged suspects would be arrested, imprisoned, and executed for being child-eating pedophiles.[11] The poster's username implied that they held Q clearance,[65][66] a United States Department of Energy security clearance required to access Top Secret information on nuclear weapons and materials.[67]
Man wearing a t-shirt with a design consisting of a block letter "Q" overlaid with an American flag pattern
A pro-Trump protester wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a common QAnon logo, at the "Stop the Steal" rally on November 14, 2020
Q's first post said that Hillary Clinton was about to be arrested, which would cause massive unrest and be followed by numerous other arrests. A second message was posted a few hours later, saying that Clinton was being "detained" though not arrested yet and that Trump was planning to remove "criminal rogue elements". The post also alluded cryptically to George Soros, Huma Abedin, and Operation Mockingbird.[68]
Q's activity surged in November, with most posts expanding upon previous theories about Hillary Clinton. Other conspiracy theories were added involving Barack Obama, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.[69] An Internet community developed around analyzing posts attributed to Q, and several conspiracy theorists became minor celebrities in the community.[70][71] Followers started looking for "clues" to confirm their beliefs, including common phrases and occurrences. In November 2017, Trump sipping water from a bottle was interpreted as a secret sign that the mass arrests would soon take place.[72]
QAnon went further than Pizzagate by implying a worldwide cabal and incorporating elements from other conspiracies. One of the earlier rumors QAnon followers spread was that such figures as Hillary Clinton, her daughter Chelsea, and Senator John McCain had already been arrested and indicted, and were wearing ankle monitoring bracelets during their public appearances.[72] In the following months, the QAnon community helped spread other rumors such as the "Frazzledrip" theory, which purported the existence of a "snuff" video showing Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin murdering a child, drinking her blood and taking turns wearing the skin from her face as a mask.[73][74]
In November 2017, two 4chan moderators, Paul Furber (also known as "BaruchtheScribe",[64] a South African conspiracy theorist with an interest in U.S. politics)[75] and Coleman Rogers (also known as "Pamphlet Anon"),[64] worked with YouTuber Tracy Diaz to promote QAnon to a wider audience.[76][77] This involved setting up the r/CBTS_Stream subreddit, where subscribers came to talk about QAnon. The subreddit was permanently closed in March 2018 due to incitement of violence and posting private information.[64] QAnon spread to other social media, including Twitter and YouTube.[70] Rogers and his wife, Christina Urso, launched Patriots' Soapbox, a YouTube livestream dedicated to QAnon, which they used to solicit donations. U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert was a guest on the channel.[76] Posts by Q moved to 8chan, with Q citing concerns that the 4chan board had been "infiltrated".[64] Thereafter, Q posted only on 8chan.[18] In August 2019, 8chan was shut down after it was connected with the El Paso shooting and other violent incidents. Followers of QAnon then moved to Endchan, until 8chan was restored under the name 8kun.[78][38]
Mainstream attention
Two soldiers meeting Pence on a tarmac
Vice President Mike Pence with Broward County SWAT team members, on November 30, 2018; the man on the left wears ...
Detail of one soldier's uniform, showing a patch with a black "Q" on a red background, and a second patch with a black field bearing an axe and scythe crossed over one another
... a "Q" patch (close-up) used by followers of QAnon[b]-the deputy was reprimanded and removed from the SWAT team as a result. The photo was tweeted, removed, and then replaced in Pence's feed.[79]
QAnon first received attention from the mainstream press in November 2017. Newsweek called it "Pizzagate on steroids".[72] Gossip columnist Liz Crokin, a Pizzagate follower, was one of the first public figures to embrace QAnon and became one of the movement's most prominent influencers.[80] Fox News personality Sean Hannity and comedian Roseanne Barr spread the news about it to their social media followers in early 2018,[81] and the conspiracy theory gained traction on the mainstream right.[82] At this time, InfoWars host and far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed to be in personal contact with Q. This led to the presence of QAnon followers at a July 2018 Trump rally for the midterm elections in Tampa, Florida, the first visible presence of the QAnon movement at Trump rallies.[83]
Some Christian pastors introduced their congregations to QAnon ideas. The Indiana-based Omega Kingdom Ministry tried to combine QAnon and Christianity, with Q posts and Bible quotes both read during church services.[84] Some Christians, such as pastor Derek Kubilus, call QAnon heresy,[85] but most U.S. pastors have not taken a stand against it.[86] More generally, QAnon's rise coincided with increasing radicalization and violent episodes in American far-right movements.[87]
QAnon-related merchandise was widely available on Amazon's online marketplace in 2018.[88] QAnon: An Invitation to the Great Awakening, a book said to be authored by a group of 12 QAnon followers, neared the top of Amazon's bestsellers list in 2019, possibly through algorithmic manipulation.[89][90] Also in 2019, QAnon blogger Neon Revolt (an alias of former aspiring screenwriter Robert Cornero Jr.) self-published the book Revolution Q: The Story of QAnon and the 2nd American Revolution, which became an influential text among the QAnon community and was also distributed by Amazon.[91] In 2020, Politico noted that 100 titles associated with QAnon were available on Amazon Marketplace, in many different languages and with generally positive reviews.[92] QAnon-related merchandise was also available on Etsy and Teespring, and pages relating to the conspiracy theory were on Patreon and GoFundMe.[93]
Sites dedicated to aggregating the Q posts, also called "drops"[94] or "Q drops",[95][78] became essential for their dissemination and spread. QMap was the most popular and famous aggregator, run by a pseudonymous developer and overall key QAnon figure known as "QAPPANON".[96][97] QMap shut down shortly after the British fact-checking organization Logically published a September 2020 report[98] that identified QAPPANON as a New Jersey-based security analyst named Jason Gelinas.[97][99] Multiple online communities were created around QAnon: in 2020, Facebook conducted an internal investigation that revealed that the social network hosted thousands of QAnon-themed groups and pages, with millions of members and followers.[100]
According to Reuters, Russian-backed social media accounts promoted QAnon claims as early as November or December 2017.[23] Russian government-funded state media such as RT and Sputnik have amplified the conspiracy theory since 2019, citing QAnon as evidence that the United States is divided by internal strife.[21] In 2021, a report from the Soufan Center, a research group focused on national security, found that one-fifth of 166,820 QAnon posts in the United States between January 2020 and February 2021 originated in foreign countries, primarily Russia and China, and that China was the "primary foreign actor touting QAnon-narratives online".[26][101][102] The far-right Falun Gong-associated Epoch Media Group, including The Epoch Times, has also been a major promoter of the conspiracy theory.[32]
University of Southern California professor and data scientist Emilio Ferrara found that about 25% of accounts that use QAnon hashtags, retweet InfoWars or had retweeted One America News Network were bots.[103]
International following
Marc-André Argentino, a researcher of the movement, noted in August 2020 that QAnon-dedicated Facebook pages existed in 71 countries worldwide.[104] In January 2021, researcher Joel Finkelstein told The Washington Post that the German and Japanese QAnon movements were "strong and growing",[105] though according to a later New York Times report, the Japanese version (also known as "JAnon" [Japanese: Jアノン])[106] remains a fringe belief even among conspiracy theorists.[107] Three pro-QAnon groups in Japan are known to exist as of 2022: J-Anon, QArmyJapanFlynn and YamatoQ.[108][109] In April 2022, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested several members of YamatoQ for breaking into a health clinic which provided COVID-19 vaccinations.[110]
Between March and June 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, QAnon activity nearly tripled on Facebook and nearly doubled on Instagram and Twitter.[111] By that time, QAnon had spread to Europe, from the Netherlands to the Balkan Peninsula.[112]
In Germany, far-right activists and influencers have created a German audience for QAnon on YouTube, Facebook, and Telegram, estimated at 200,000 in 2020. German Reichsbürger groups adopted QAnon to promote its belief that modern Germany is not a sovereign republic but rather a corporation created by Allied nations after World War II, and expressed hope that Trump would lead an army to restore the Reich.[112] A March 2022 study by the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy, a German think tank, found that more than one in ten people in Germany agreed with QAnon's theories and that Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) voters were more likely to believe in QAnon.[113][114]
In Russia, a similar conspiracy theory, the "Soviet Citizens"-which claims the Russian Federation is a Delaware-based LLC that occupies the legal territory of the Soviet Union-also became susceptible to QAnon beliefs.[115]
One in four Britons believe in QAnon-related theories, though only 6% support QAnon.[116] In October 2020, anti-racist advocacy group Hope not Hate said that British influencer Martin Geddes ran "one of the most popular QAnon Twitter accounts in the world".[117] In October 2021, Rémy Daillet-Wiedemann, a French QAnon-associated conspiracy theorist,[118][119] was charged with terrorism for having planned a coup against the French government. Various associates of Daillet-Wiedemann were also arrested and charged in late 2021[120] and early 2022.[121]
QAnon graffiti in Paris
Many Canadians have also promoted QAnon.[122][123][124] In July 2020, a gunman and QAnon follower drove a vehicle into the grounds of Rideau Hall, the temporary residence of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, to "arrest" Trudeau over COVID-19 restrictions and firearm regulations.[125][126][127] A February 8 article in The Guardian described the 2022 convoy protests in Canada as the result of coordination between QAnon, conspiracy theorists, anti-vaccine and anti-government organizations.[128] Romana Didulo, a Philippines-born Canadian woman claiming to be Canada's rightful "Queen", built an online following in the course of 2021, creating a cultlike organization using QAnon and sovereign citizen concepts. Because of Didulo's network of followers and calls for violence, researchers identified her in 2022 as one of the most dangerous QAnon influencers in Canada.[129][130][131]
Cam Smith, an Australian researcher tracking far-right activity online, noticed mentions of QAnon in Australia's local communities as early as 2018.[132] In 2020, when lockdown measures were imposed in Melbourne to contain an outbreak of COVID-19, a group of QAnon adherents from Queensland traveled there to protest, promoting QAnon as they went.[133][132] A 2020 paper by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue revealed that Australia was the fourth largest producer of QAnon content, after the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.[132]
The movement has spread to Spain and Latin America,[134] with countries like Costa Rica, Colombia, Argentina, Mexico, Paraguay and Brazil having an online presence.[135] La Nación reported in 2020 that the Facebook page "QAnon Costa Rica" was spreading misinformation and fake news, called to depose President Carlos Alvarado and praised right-wing figures such as far-right presidential candidate Juan Diego Castro Fernández, and controversial deputies Dragos Dolanescu Valenciano and Erick Rodríguez Steller.[136] In Spain, the far-right Vox party was accused of endorsing anti-Biden conspiracy theories linked to QAnon in its Twitter account by claiming that Biden was the candidate "preferred by pedophiles".[137] An RTVE news report found that most Spanish QAnon supporters identified Vox as their preferred political party.[138]
Pastel QAnon
Main article: Pastel QAnon
Pastel QAnon, identified by Concordia University researcher Marc-André Argentino,[139][140] is a collection of techniques aimed predominantly at indoctrinating women into the conspiracy theory, mainly on social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Telegram and YouTube.[141] It co-opts the aesthetics and language of social media influencers, often using personal anecdotes and gateway issues (i.e. child sex-trafficking) to frame QAnon beliefs as reasonable.[142]
Claims
Q's posts
A QAnon logo based on a white silhouette of a rabbit, which signifies Q telling followers to "Follow the White Rabbit", i.e. discover the hidden truth by doing their own research about the theory
Q made thousands of posts on 4chan and 8chan/8kun.[94] These "drops" were often allusive, cryptic, and impossible to verify;[143] some included strings of characters that are allegedly coded messages.[144] Q used a conspiratorial tone, with phrases like "I've said too much" or "Some things must remain classified to the very end". To sustain faith in a final victory over the "cabal", Q used recurring phrases such as "Trust the plan", "Enjoy the show", and "Nothing can stop what is coming".[78] Q's messages typically claimed that everything was going as planned, that Trump was in control, and that all his adversaries would end up in prison.[68] Q also encouraged followers to do their own research by telling them to "Follow the White Rabbit".[c] QAnon followers used the "White Rabbit" reference both as a hashtag[145][72] and as the name of a Facebook group that had around 90,000 members in 2020.[146]
Many early posts advanced claims about "deep state" collusion with foreign powers. In 2018, Q mentioned geopolitical conspiracies such as the Obama administration having planned to send technology to Iran and North Korea. Later, Q found new targets such as Planned Parenthood, which they accused of harvesting fetuses for profit, or Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who they said was a member of the cabal. Over the years, other topics of interest included Russian interference, child trafficking, Jeffrey Epstein, Antifa and Hunter Biden.[69] Becoming increasingly vague over time, Q's posts allowed followers to map their own beliefs onto them and develop new variations of the theory.[147]
The author Walter Kirn has described Q as an innovator among conspiracy theorists by enthralling readers with "clues" rather than presenting claims directly: "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."[148] But Q often made specific predictions that did not prove correct:[149]
Hillary Clinton was about to be arrested and would attempt to flee the country[d]
John Podesta would be arrested on November 3, 2017, and public riots would be organized to try and prevent the arrest of other public officials[68]
A major event involving the Department of Defense would take place on February 1, 2018
People targeted by Trump would commit suicide en masse on February 10, 2018
There would be a car bombing in London around February 16, 2018
A "smoking gun" video of Hillary Clinton would emerge in March 2018
Something major would happen in Chongqing on April 10, 2018
There would be a "bombshell" revelation about North Korea in May 2018
The Trump military parade would "never be forgotten"[e]
The Five Eyes "won't be around much longer"
Mark Zuckerberg was going to leave Facebook and flee the United States[f]
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey would be forced to resign "next" (in the context of the prediction of Zuckerberg's resignation)[g]
Pope Francis would have a "terrible May" in 2018
On multiple occasions, Q has dismissed these incorrect predictions as deliberate, claiming that "disinformation is necessary".[151][152][153] 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 it "can become evidence of [its] validity in the minds of believers".[150] The numerous false, unsubstantiated claims Q has posted include:
That the CIA installed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a puppet ruler[154]
That U.S. Representative and former Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz hired Salvadoran gang MS-13 to murder DNC staffer Seth Rich[155][156][h]
An apparent suggestion that German chancellor Angela Merkel is Adolf Hitler's granddaughter[161]
That Obama, Hillary Clinton, George Soros, and others are planning a coup against Trump and are involved in an international child sex-trafficking ring[162][163]
That the Mueller investigation was a counter-coup led by Trump, who pretended to conspire with Russia to hire Mueller to secretly investigate the Democrats[14] and expose the child sex-trafficking ring[164]
That the Rothschild family leads a satanic cult,[13] a centuries-old antisemitic trope against the family[165]
After Trump lost the 2020 election, the rate of Q's posts sharply declined[69] and Q stopped posting altogether one month later. The last "drop" for 18 months was on December 8, 2020.[166] Mike Rothschild, author of a book on QAnon, said that he doubted Q would ever come back, as the movement had "outgrown the need for new drops" and Trump's election loss had invalidated the core QAnon prophecy. But he added that Q might resume posting if "the community really needed new drops to keep it moving forward".[167]
On June 24, 2022, Q, or someone who possesses their details, posted on 8kun after an 18-month hiatus.[168][169] The post claimed that Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified at the sixth public hearing on the January 6 Attack, was involved in a plot to disparage Trump.[170][171]
The cabal and "the Storm"
Outside the US. Capitol during the January 6, 2021 riot, a Trump supporter carries a placard depicting Jesus in a MAGA hat with the QAnon hashtag "#WWG1WGA" visible in the lower right
QAnon's core beliefs are that the world is controlled by a secret cabal of Satan-worshipping child molesters, Trump is secretly battling to stop them, and Q reveals details about the battle online. The cabal is thought to cover up its existence by controlling politicians, mainstream media, and Hollywood.[172] Q's revelations imply that the cabal's destruction is imminent but also that it will be accomplished only with the support of the "patriots" of the QAnon community.[78] This will happen at a time known as "the Event" or "the Storm", when thousands of people will be arrested and possibly sent to Guantanamo Bay prison or face military tribunals. The U.S. military will then take over the country,[173] and the result will be salvation and utopia.[174]
Figures QAnon followers believe are part of the cabal include Democratic Party politicians like Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, businesspeople like George Soros[9] and Bill Gates,[175] religious leaders like Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama,[9] Anthony Fauci,[78] and entertainers like Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres,[9] Lady Gaga[176] and Chrissy Teigen.[175][177] Tom Hanks is a special target for QAnon believers. When Hanks went into quarantine at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, they spread a rumor that he had been arrested on child abuse charges. Other similar allegations followed and in July 2021, some QAnon adherents took seriously an article from a parody website that said the U.S. military had executed Hanks.[178][176]
One key tenet in QAnon's narrative until the 2020 election was the recurring prediction that Trump would be reelected in a landslide and spend his second term bringing about "the Storm" by undoing the deep state, disbanding the cabal and arresting its leaders.[179] After Trump lost and Q stopped posting, QAnon followers continued to search for previously unseen clues in old posts or creating new spin-offs of the theory.[167] They subsequently made predictions about Trump remaining president or returning to power, such as:
Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, 2021, would be an elaborate trap set for the Democrats, who would be arrested en masse and executed while Trump retained power.[180]
Trump would be inaugurated on March 4, 2021, as the 19th president.[181]
Trump would be inaugurated again on March 20, 2021. After this did not happen, QAnon adherents predicted it would happen on August 13, 2021.[182]
The Arizona audit would prove election fraud, handing the state to Trump, and other states would follow suit in a "domino effect", resulting in Trump being reinstated as president.[167]
The 2021 California gubernatorial recall election result would be proven fraudulent, which would catalyze a national fraud audit, resulting in Trump returning to power.[183]
John F. Kennedy (the 35th president of the United States, who was assassinated in 1963) or his son John F. Kennedy Jr. (who died in a plane crash in 1999) would appear alive in front of a crowd in Dallas on November 2, 2021, and announce Trump's reinstatement as president and the installation of Kennedy Jr. as vice president.[184]
Child sex trafficking and satanic sacrifice
QAnon effectively merged with Pizzagate by incorporating its beliefs, namely that children are being abducted in a child trafficking ring, which followers equate with the cabal. They also see Trump as the only person fighting this criminal network.[185] Added to this is the belief that politicians and Hollywood elites engage in "adrenochrome harvesting", in which adrenalin is extracted from children's blood to produce the psychoactive drug adrenochrome.[186][i] This comprises claims that children are tortured, or sacrificed in Satanic rituals, to harvest the adrenaline that comes from fear.[187] The aforementioned "Frazzledrip" video in which Hillary Clinton and Huma Abedin allegedly murdered a child was said to depict an "adrenochrome harvest".[74] One version of the QAnon theory posits that the child abusers use adrenochrome as an elixir to remain young.[189] In reality, adrenochrome is synthesized solely for research purposes and has no medical uses.[190][191][192]
#SaveOurChildren graffiti on a bridge in Lufkin, Texas
In June 2020, a group led by QAnon promoter Timothy Charles Holmseth, which called itself the Pentagon Pedophile Task Force despite having no connection with the Pentagon or any U.S. governmental agency, attracted attention by spreading false claims about tens of thousands of children being held hostage and tortured in New York City.[193][194] Also by 2020, some followers began using the Twitter hashtag #SaveTheChildren (#SaveOurChildren was also used),[195] coopting a trademarked name for the child welfare organization Save the Children.[196] This led to an August 7 statement by Save the Children on the unauthorized use of its name in campaigns.[197] In September, Facebook and Instagram tried to prevent #SaveTheChildren from being associated with QAnon by redirecting users who searched for the hashtag to the child welfare group.[198] In October, Facebook announced it would try to limit the hashtag's reach.[199]
In the same period, QAnon followers also created a conspiracy theory that falsely accused furniture company Wayfair, a competitor of Overstock in which QAnon promoter Patrick Byrne had been the CEO, of selling expensive furniture to launder money gained from child sex trafficking.[200][201]
Similar groups in both the U.S. and the U.K. helped organize street protests that they say raise awareness of child sexual abuse and human trafficking.[202][203] These protests and hashtags have often avoided social media restrictions[204] and tend to attract more women and a more politically diverse and younger crowd than typical QAnon groups, including people opposed to Trump and his leadership. These groups are considered to be linked to the Pastel QAnon community.[205]
QAnon's child abuse allegations against popular entertainers are based on the unproven claims of the actor Isaac Kappy, who in 2018 accused multiple Hollywood stars of pedophilia.[176][206][207]
Travis View wrote in a Washington Post column that QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theorists harm the credibility of the fight against child sexual abuse, as their baseless claims are a distraction from actual crimes. Followers of these theories have also credited themselves for arrests of criminals in which they had no part: QAnon promoter Jordan Sather credited Jeffrey Epstein's arrest to 4chan and 8chan, while none of the investigative reporting nor the indictment referenced these forums.[208] Some of the conspiracy theories about Epstein's death have also brought people to QAnon.[185]
In May 2022, The New York Times reported that QAnon supporters were intercepting child migrants at the Mexico-United States border and collecting information about their families on the premise that they were falling prey to sex-trafficking schemes.[209]
Other QAnon beliefs
See also: Syncretism (merging of belief systems as a general notion)
See also: Sovereign citizen movement, COVID-19 misinformation, and NESARA
QAnon supporters awaiting the return of John F. Kennedy Jr. in Dealey Plaza, on November 22, 2021
QAnon Anonymous, a podcast dedicated to analyzing and debunking the QAnon movement, calls it a "big tent conspiracy theory" due to its ability to evolve and add new claims. QAnon has incorporated elements from many other preexisting conspiracy theories, such as those about the Kennedy assassination, U.F.O.s and 9/11.[9] In 2018, Liz Crokin said that John F. Kennedy Jr. faked his death and that he is Q.[210][211] Other followers adopted variations of the Kennedy conspiracy theory, asserting that a Pittsburgh Trump supporter named Vincent Fusca is Kennedy Jr. in disguise and would be Trump's 2020 running mate.[211] In November 2021, hundreds gathered in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the site of President Kennedy's assassination, believing they would witness the return of Kennedy Jr., or both Kennedys. Attendees expected the event would herald Trump's reinstatement as president, that Trump would step down to allow Kennedy Jr. to become president, and that Kennedy Jr. would then name Michael Flynn as his vice president.[212][213][214] According to QAnon researcher Will Sommer, about 20% of QAnon followers believe the JFK Jr. theory, while the majority finds it too "farcical on its face".[211]
Logo of E-Clause, a sovereign citizen pseudolaw firm associated with QAnon[194][215]
Due to the overlap between the two movements, some QAnon followers have joined the sovereign citizens, a loose grouping of vexatious litigants and tax protesters whose set of pseudolegal beliefs implies that most laws and taxes are illegitimate and can be safely ignored if one uses the correct procedures.[216][217] In 2022, the Anti-Defamation League reported that sovereign citizen ideology was attracting a growing number of QAnon adherents, as their belief in the Biden administration's illegitimacy meshed well with sovereign citizens' broader anti-government views.[218]
In 2018, Q said that "vaccines [not all]" were part of the Big Pharma conspiracy theory.[219] But as anxiety and isolation linked to the COVID-19 pandemic fostered a rise of conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine discourse, many in the movement used the pandemic to promote QAnon.[219] Very little of this was directed by Q posts, and Q did not mention the pandemic until March 23, 2020 (when they called COVID-19 the "China virus"),[220] not using the name "COVID-19" until April 8.[69] But influencers in the QAnon community were openly anti-mask[68] and anti-vaccine,[221][222][223][224] and helped spread denialism[80] as well as other misinformation about the pandemic.[225][226][227] QAnon conspiracy theorists touted drinking an industrial bleach (known as MMS, or Miracle Mineral Solution) as a "miracle cure" for COVID-19.[228][229][230] Q suggested that hydroxychloroquine, endorsed by Trump at the time, was a cure for the disease, and accused Democrats of forcing infected patients into nursing homes, deliberately causing most COVID-related deaths in the U.S.[69] Some QAnon followers have said that the pandemic is fake; others have claimed that the "deep state" created it.[78] QAnon adherents also helped promote the conspiratorial video Plandemic.[68]
In March 2022, CNN, France 24, and Foreign Policy reported that QAnon promoters were echoing Russian disinformation that created conspiracy theories about United States-funded laboratories in Ukraine.[231][232][233] Russian state media falsely claimed that "secret United States biolabs" were creating weapons, a claim refuted by the U.S., Ukraine, and the United Nations.[232] In reality, the laboratories were first established to secure and dismantle the remnants of the Soviet biological weapons program, and since then have been used to monitor and prevent new epidemics. The laboratories are publicly listed, not secret, and owned and operated by host countries such as Ukraine, not the U.S.[231][232][234] QAnon followers have claimed to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an effort by Putin and Trump to destroy "military" laboratories in Ukraine.[231][232]
Until the invasion of Ukraine, QAnon-adjacent groups were hostile to China. In March 2022, analyst Elise Thomas wrote in a report for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue: "The dynamics of the invasion are shifting their views. In an astoundingly short space of time, Xi Jinping appears to have been recast from a villain to a hero in the QAnon conspiracy pantheon."[235][236]
Supporters have also become invested in the NESARA economic conspiracy theory. In 2022, Bellingcat reported that many QAnon-related Telegram channels were becoming increasingly devoted to NESARA content.[237]
Some adherents expressed belief in the reptilian conspiracy theory, asserting that the Satanic cabal alleged to be in power consists of shapeshifting reptilian humanoids. According to multiple news reports, this led some to kill suspected "lizard people". A California father attempted to kill his children for fear that they had inherited "serpent DNA" from their mother, while a Seattle-based member of the far-right Proud Boys who frequently alluded to and promoted QAnon-linked material on Facebook, sought to murder his brother on suspicion of reptilian ancestry.[238]
Analysis
Identity of Q
The Q persona was that of a well-connected individual with access to highly sensitive government information, who put themself at risk by disclosing the information online. Q used a calm, authoritative tone, rarely interacted with other posters, and never argued with those who disagreed with their claims. In 2021, Bellingcat analyzed several little-known posts published by Q during the days that followed the first "drops". While containing text identical to later messages unambiguously authored by Q, these also showed Q being "out of character" and behaving in a manner similar to 4chan's other anonymous posters. Bellingcat's theory is that the author of these messages[j] had not yet perfected the Q persona and was still settling into the voice of their online alter ego, which implies that Q was originally one 4chan poster among many instead of a powerful government insider.[239]
Multiple people
By 2020, it became accepted among researchers that the pseudonymous entity known as Q has been controlled by multiple people in cooperation.[76] A stylometric analysis has suggested that two people likely wrote Q's posts, and that their "distinct signatures clearly correspond to separate periods in time and different online forums".[240][241] An analysis of metadata of images posted by Q found that they were likely posted by someone in the Pacific Time Zone.[242]
By design, anonymous imageboards such as 4chan and 8chan obscure their posters' identities.[76][243] Those who wish to prove a consistent identity between posts while remaining anonymous can use a tripcode, which associates a post with a unique digital signature for any poster who knows the password.[78][244] There have been thousands of posts associated with a Q tripcode.[78] The tripcode associated with Q has changed several times, creating uncertainty about the poster's continuous identity.[78] Passwords on 8chan are also easy to crack, and the Q tripcode has been repeatedly compromised and used by people pretending to be Q.[245] When 8chan returned as 8kun in November 2019 after several months of downtime, the Q posting on 8kun posted photos of a pen and notebook that had been pictured in earlier 8chan posts to show the continuation of the Q identity, and continued to use Q's 8chan tripcode.[78]
Paul Furber and the Watkins family
Main articles: Jim Watkins and Ron Watkins
Ron Watkins, administrator on the site 8chan
Before Q's 2021 reappearance, 8kun changed its salt, meaning it would have been impossible for a user to have the same tripcode as before. Yet Q's tripcode remained the same as it was in 2020. Soon after, 8kun changed its salt back to the original. Jim Watkins also confirmed the new Q drops' authenticity within hours of their publication.[246] Fredrick Brennan, the original owner of 8chan, said in June 2020 that "Q either knows Jim or Ron Watkins or was hired by Jim or Ron Watkins".[78][247] He later said that "If [Jim Watkins is] not 'Q' himself, he can find out who 'Q' is at any time. And he's pretty much the only person in the world that can have private contact with 'Q'."[248]
In September 2020, Brennan speculated that the Q account was initially run by another person, with Jim and Ron Watkins taking over in late 2017[247] or early 2018. Brennan's theory is that the original 'Q' poster was Johannesburg resident Paul Furber,[249] a 4chan and 8chan moderator and one of the first online commentators to promote QAnon.[76][75] Evidence for this theory includes that Q's first password ("Matlock")[250] was cracked on New Year's Day 2018[251] and, due to the nature of tripcodes,[250] Furber was asked to verify that the new Q (with a new password/tripcode)[252] was the same IP address as the old Q. Furber described this as "a lot of work", but something he'd been "called to do".[250] Brennan further suspects that Ron Watkins seized control of the account from Furber by using his login privileges as 8chan's administrator.[252] Furber has denied ever being Q.[249] Both Jim and Ron Watkins have said they do not know Q's identity and have denied being Q.[78][253][247]
The documentary filmmaker Cullen Hoback spent three years investigating the origins of QAnon and its connection to 8chan, conducting extensive interviews with Jim and Ron Watkins and Brennan. In the last episode of Q: Into the Storm, the 2021 HBO docuseries he produced from this research, Hoback showed his final conversation with Ron Watkins, who stated on camera:
I've spent the past ... almost ten years, every day, doing this kind of research anonymously. Now I'm doing it publicly, that's the only difference. ... It was basically ... three years of intelligence training teaching normies how to do intelligence work. It was basically what I was doing anonymously before but never as Q. [Watkins then laughed and added:] Never as Q. I promise. Because I am not Q, and I never was.[254][255]
Hoback viewed this as an inadvertent admission by Watkins, and concluded from this interview and his other research that Watkins is Q.[256] Watkins again denied being Q shortly before the series premiered.[257]
On February 19, 2022, The New York Times reported that analysis of the Q posts by two independent forensic linguistics teams using stylometry techniques indicated that Paul Furber was the main author of the initial Q posts, and Ron Watkins took over in 2018. Furber said Q's writing style had influenced his own, not the other way around.[75]
Slogans and vocabulary
QAnon slogan "WWG1WGA" painted on an SUV
The popular QAnon slogan "WWG1WGA" ("Where we go one, we go all"), with a reference to The Matrix, painted on an SUV
The spread of QAnon has been accompanied by a series of slogans, catchphrases, buzzwords and hashtags that helped boost its popularity and online presence. Terms like the "cabal" or the "Storm", and Q's recurring phrases like "Trust the plan" or "Enjoy the show" are among the most popular.[78][189] Q's "drops" are also known as "crumbs" (Q has used the term)[95] or "breadcrumbs".[258] In turn, followers of the conspiracy who analyze these posts have called themselves "bakers" who assemble the "crumbs" to make "dough", or "bread", as they weave the clues into a better understanding of the narrative.[95]
One early rallying cry among QAnon followers was "Follow the White Rabbit".[72] A popular QAnon slogan is "Where we go one, we go all" (frequently abbreviated as "WWG1WGA"),[k] first used by Q in April 2018.[69] The phrase "Do your own research" (or "Do the research") encourages people to look for "clues" that will confirm QAnon narratives. "Q sent me" has been a declaration of "allegiance" to Q.[189]
Other common phrases in QAnon parlance include "white hat" (a Trump supporter), "black hat" (someone in league with the "deep state"),[258] "Great Awakening" (the point at which the public "wakes up" to the truth), "red pill"[l] ("taking the red pill" means achieving QAnon "awareness"), or "sheeple" (a disparaging term for people who believe the mainstream media narrative and not QAnon).[259] "17anon" has sometimes been used as an alternative spelling of QAnon (Q being the 17th letter of the alphabet) and a way of circumventing social media algorithms.[189]
Use of the term "groomers" was adopted by Christopher Rufo in constructing the LGBT grooming conspiracy theory, and started to influence mainstream Republican political positions and rhetoric.[260]
Derivative elements
For broader coverage of the common theme in American political conspiracy theories, see Conspiracy theories in United States politics.
As it incorporates elements from many other conspiracy theories, QAnon displays similarities with previous narratives, imagery and moral panics, whether political or religious in nature. In Salon, Matthew Rozsa wrote that QAnon may best be understood as an example of what historian Richard Hofstadter called "The Paranoid Style in American Politics", the title of his 1964 essay on religious millenarianism and apocalypticism.[4][172]
QAnon's vocabulary echoes Christian tropes, such as the "Storm" (the Genesis flood narrative or Judgment Day) and the "Great Awakening" (evoking the reputed historical religious Great Awakenings of the early 18th century to the late 20th century),[4] leading it to be sometimes construed as an emerging religious movement.[78] QAnon followers, while seeing Trump as a flawed Christian, also view him as a messiah sent by God.[3] According to one QAnon video, the battle between Trump and "the cabal" is of "biblical proportions", a "fight for earth, of good versus evil". Some QAnon supporters say the coming reckoning will be a "reverse rapture": "a revelation that means not only the end of the world but a new beginning", according to American political author Alexander Reid Ross.[174]
Like Pizzagate,[261] QAnon has some resemblance to the Satanic panic of the 1980s, when hundreds of daycare workers were falsely accused of abusing children.[262][263][264][265]
According to the Anti-Defamation League, 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, the Rothschilds, and Soros "revealed some troubling examples".[16] Ethan Zuckerman and Mike McQuade have argued that QAnon "is more anti-elite than explicitly anti-Semitic".[7] The Washington Post and The Forward magazine have called QAnon's targeting of Jewish figures like George Soros and the Rothschilds "striking anti-Semitic elements" and "garden-variety nonsense with racist and anti-Semitic undertones".[14][266] A Jewish Telegraphic Agency article in August 2018 asserted: "Some of QAnon's archetypical elements-including secret elites and kidnapped children, among others-are reflective of historical and ongoing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories."[15]
QAnon's adrenochrome-harvesting claims have been linked to blood libel by the followers (who believe in the truthfulness of both)[267] and people who have researched QAnon. Blood libel is a medieval antisemitic myth that says Jewish people murder Christian children and use their blood to make matzo for Passover.[186][268][269][262] In February 2022, social media users shared images of a sculpture of Simon of Trent, whose death was falsely blamed on the town's Jewish population, as evidence that elites harvest adrenochrome from children's blood.[270][271]
Genocide scholar Gregory Stanton has called QAnon a "Nazi cult rebranded", and a version of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fabricated antisemitic text published in 1903, deriving from antisemitic canards.[272][273] Republican QAnon follower Mary Ann Mendoza was noted for her reference to the antisemitic text. She retweeted a Twitter thread about the Rothschild family, Satanic High Priestesses, and American presidents saying, "The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion is not a fabrication. And, it certainly is not anti-Semitic to point out this fact."[274][m] An April 2021 Morning Consult poll found that 49% of Americans who believe in QAnon agree with the Protocols, and that 78% of Americans who agree with the Protocols also believe in QAnon.[277]
In 2021, the Anti-Defamation League reported that neo-Nazis were exploiting the absence of leadership among QAnon adherents on Telegram to promote antisemitic conspiracy theories.[278] QAnon conspiracy theorists have promoted Europa: The Last Battle, a neo-Nazi propaganda film which promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories, including Holocaust denial.[279][280][281]
Appeal
Experts have classified QAnon's appeal as comparable to those of religious cults.[10] According to an expert in online conspiracy, Renee DiResta, QAnon's pattern of enticement is similar to that of cults in the pre-Internet era where, as the targeted person was led deeper and deeper into the group's secrets, they become increasingly isolated from friends and family outside the cult.[282] Online support groups developed for those whose loved ones were drawn into QAnon, notably the subreddit r/QAnonCasualties, which grew from 3,500 participants in June 2020 to 28,000 by October.[283] QAnon virtual communities have little "real world" connection with each other, but online they can number in the tens of thousands.[282] Rachel Bernstein, an expert on cults who specializes in recovery therapy, said, "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 followers are immune to correction, fact-checking, or counter-speech, which is drowned out by the cult's groupthink.[282] QAnon's cultish quality has led to its characterization as a possible emerging religious movement.[78][284][285][286][287] It has also been called a syncretic movement.[288]
Jake Angeli, a prominent proponent of QAnon and stormer at the U.S. Capitol attack,[289] carrying a "Q Sent Me" placard