Few conspiracy theories have scaled to the global size that QAnon has achieved within the past few months. Beginning in 2017, an individual under the pseudonym of “Q” claimed to be a high-ranking government official, and began dropping seemingly top-secret information on the anonymous imageboard platform 4chan. QAnon followers believe in several groundless ideas with no factual evidence. They believe Democrats, journalists, and global elites worship Satan and have child-trafficking rings, and that Donald Trump is leading the movement towards the “Great Awakening,” a period of salvation. They actively spread anti-semitic, islamophobic, and racist messages across the internet.
Though this may have started on the outskirts of the internet, QAnon has spread at an unprecedented rate, and has started to become mainstream. It is now a looming presence largely across social media platforms, specifically Facebook, where the conspiracy group’s growth was propelled by powerful algorithms. According to an NBC report published in August, an internal investigation from Facebook has “uncovered thousands of groups and pages, with millions of members and followers, that support the QAnon conspiracy theory,” with the top groups surpassing three million followers.
Starting in 2018, merchandise and signs with the letter Q have been spotted at Trump rallies all over the United States, and QAnon has even begun to be represented on the conservative side in government elections. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for example, a QAnon supporter, won a House primary election in Georgia. Trump later tweeted his support for her, calling her a “future Republican star” a few days later, as described by the New York Times (NYT). Creed Newton, an Al Jazeera reporter, has stated that at least 24 political candidates have supported the conspiracy, and an NBC report notes that “70 congressional candidates have endorsed some part of the QAnon ideology in 2020.”
During COVID-19, QAnon has not only received positive responses among conservatives in the US, but abroad as well. The disorientation caused by the pandemic has become a breeding ground for the conspiracy. Chine Labbe, an editor at NewsGuard (a browser extension that assesses whether information on the internet is credible), explains that QAnon’s web of conspiracies is spreading exponentially in Europe. Al Jazeera has said that the web is adapting into “EU-centered—or even local—narratives.” As described by the NYT, three years after its beginning in the US, QAnon groups “have sprung up from the Netherlands to the Balkans. In Britain, QAnon-themed protests under the banner of ‘Save Our Children’ have taken place in more than 20 cities and towns, attracting a more female and less right-wing demographic.”
QAnon’s largest foreign following is in Germany, where an estimated 200,000 people follow the group through platforms including Youtube, Facebook, and the Telegram Messenger app. In Germany, conspiracy theories in times of confusion are not a novel development, and the NYT has discussed how the anti-semitic ideas spread by QAnon have spurred the dangerous old ideologies of the far-right in Germany. As mentioned during a panel held by Al Jazeera, Sergey Lagodinsky, a member of the European Parliament, explains that in Germany, QAnon is becoming part of larger conspiracy theories such as the Reichsbürger Movement, another far-right anti-semitic group that completely refuses to acknowledge the existence of the German government. Lagodinsky continued to explain that QAnon has merged with local anti-mask rallies, as seen in the recent major protest in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
When it comes to limiting the growth of QAnon in Europe, Lagodinsky points out that in a free society, it is difficult to find the balance between allowing free speech and believing “irrational theories.” However, it becomes a political issue when the ideas spread cause wide-ranged misinformation that could possibly have deadly effects, especially during a global pandemic. As noted by Al Jazeera, the ability of QAnon to swiftly change “the way people view reality” and build a “sense of unity among followers” is what is leading people to call QAnon a digitally spread “cult.” The Middle East Eye has discussed a few irrational theories spread by QAnon, including arguing that 5G networks are behind the pandemic, and implying that women donning masks marks the beginning of wearing faceveils, a covering sometimes worn by Muslim women in the Gulf.
QAnon’s rising dangerous reputation has led the FBI to list them as a potential domestic threat. According to NBC, while most QAnon believers will stay passive, shootings, harassment campaigns, two murders, and attempted kidnappings have already happened, as investigated by Facebook. Al Jazeera has since stated that Facebook is dealing with QAnon content by both reducing their visibility on the platform and banning them, similarly to how Twitter has already banned 7,000 QAnon accounts. Many more accounts remain, and it is expected that more will rebound.
As reported by the Guardian, “There now exists an entire QAnon media ecosystem, with enormous amounts of video content, memes, e-books, chatrooms, and more, all designed to snare the interest of potential recruits, then draw them ‘down the rabbit hole’ and into QAnon’s alternate reality.” Because of so many current issues regarding the pandemic, the economy, and politics, the situation is made vastly more complicated. As illustrated by an analyst who monitors online extremism in Britain, “It [QAnon] offers wish fulfilment—the idea that at some moment Donald Trump is going to liberate people.” QAnon’s message will resonate easily with vulnerable and naive people, offering a clear example of the new dangers society faces in the age of social media.