What is QAnon?

Summary

• What started as a rumour a few years back is now a ‘potential terrorist threat’ called QAnon.
• Essentially, QAnon is a group of supporters that have specific, far-fetched conspiracy theories, putting Donald Trump in the middle of their beliefs.
• They believe that high-profile democrats, religious and entertainment personas are planning a Satanic/paedophile agenda against Mr Trump.
• Mr Trump acknowledges QAnon’s existence and has retweeted several tweets posted by QAnon supporters.

2020 does not cease to surprise.

With popular conspiracy theories such as 5G network causing the coronavirus or that Mr Bill Gates wants to chip the whole world, a new extreme far-right wing theory emerged a couple of months ago.

Hardcore organization supporters have started a rumour that was firstly not that popular. Still, with many people spending a lot of time using computers and other smart gadgets, it became a genuine belief since a couple of months ago.

The buzz shortly became known as QAnon, a group of people that started with spreading false information regarding the coronavirus, presidential elections, and the most recent BLM mass protest.

QAnon supporters did not limit themselves to propagating misinformation but have also attributed the movement to infamous activities, such as the anti-vax movement and preventing child-trafficking.

However, QAnon is not dangerous because of activities, as mentioned above, that took place in the online world. The problem with this propaganda is that its supporters did not settle on the Internet-warrior title but have expanded it to the real world.

And that is not the whole thing.

What is QAnon?

The group deems that the most famous and most influential leaders in the world are paedophiles and, at the same time, are Satan celebrants. On top of all of that, the movement supporters think that the leaders sell children for sexual purposes and occasionally practice cannibalism.

But that is not all.

The QAnon worshipers connected everything on the above with Donald J. Trump. Namely, they believe how those leaders are conspiring an act of Satan-related revenge against the President.

Mr Trump is also, allegedly, a military recruit that was supposed to break the military conspiracy and restore the control of the media and the politics.

Who are the so-called Satan paedophile leaders?

Apart from politicians that include the former US President Barack Obama and the 2016 Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, billionaire George Soros is also thought to be a part of this elite.

Alongside Hollywood stars Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres and Tom Hanks, Dalai Lama and Pope Francis are considered to be part of the powerful Satan/paedophile clan.

It is important to emphasize that most of those folks are upper-class Democrats.

Image Source: © Kalkine Group 2020

What is QAnon’s core faith?

QAnon believers are patiently waiting for two significant events – the Storm and the Great Awakening.

With the Storm event, the people in power will face a massive and a public police arrest, after which they will encounter their true destiny that is not positive in any way. The Storm is expected to happen over a specific period, on separate incidents. On occasions, the QAnon movement is referred to as the Storm.

On the contrary, the Great Awakening will be the day when the general public will realize how the QAnon supporters were right the whole time. As this venue encounters, everyone is supposed to enter the stage of utopia.

What is the cause of referral to the Storm?

In 2017, Mr Trump commented on ‘being the calm before the storm’ when posing for a photo with a group of military officials.

Due to the statement, the QAnon conspiracy theorists believe that Mr Trump sent a cipher message that is now considered proof of their far-fetched claims.

What does ‘Q’ stand for?

According to the QAnon believers, the letter Q stands for a high-profile person that works in the government circles. Some even consider that more people are involved with the identity of the Q.

The person is believed to have vast insight knowledge about military and confidential information. The Q plans to expose all secrets regarding this movement, which will prove the plotting revenge against Mr Trump.

Another thing that associates with QAnon and the Q is number 17. According to the followers, the Q informs them through encrypted messages that contain the number 17. The letter is also the 17^th letter in the English alphabet.

What are ‘Q drops’?

Q drops is a term that defines posts made by whoever is behind the Q title. Currently, there are almost 5,000 posts that were, at first, posted on the specific app with the same name.

The app managed to get into the top 10 paid apps in Apple Store, but Apple took it down due to disagreement with their guidelines and company policy two years ago.

Due to that reason, the QAnon clan needed to switch their forum area to the social media network. Their most popular platforms are Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, where they discuss “relevant” events using many coded messages.

How many supporters are there?

The sect itself did not reveal the official number of all members. Still, the independent internal research had shown there are at least a few hundreds of thousands of followers within social media groups. However, during the pandemic, the numbers are expected to be even bigger – some estimated millions of QAnon newcomers.

How is social media controlling the movement?

Since August this year, social media platforms have worked tirelessly to stop the spread of misinformation associated with QAnon.

Facebook announced a new policy back in August when it revealed a plan of halting any social groups creation regarding QAnon. Ever since then, it managed to delete several groups related to the movement and had stated it would keep doing so. However, individual profiles are still not restricted from posting about QAnon.

YouTube had most likely had the most prominent role in reaching a wider QAnon audience but had stopped being part of it since mid-October. The online video company wrote a blog describing a new strategy – all videos that have QAnon content will be taken down due to violence concerns.

Twitter claims to have removed more than 7,000 accounts associated with the group. It also stopped trending and highlighting QAnon-related tweets as a response to sharing a conspiracy theory and spreading violent intent.

What did Mr Trump say about the movement?

Mr President had been asked to comment on QAnon on various occasions but had mostly been vague in his responses.

Mr Trump said he had heard of the group, but it is still not completely clear if he is more involved in it than he claims. He also mentioned that QAnon supporters love the US a lot.

Is the group dangerous?

Some of the QAnon supporters have shown violent features and have been charged with plenty of crimes.

The most high-profile crime is involved with a killing a NY mafia boss last year, alongside death threats which were sent to the current Presidential candidate Joe Biden.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, one of the most famous intelligence authorities in the whole world, stated that QAnon poses a probable terrorist threat to US society.