QAnon Twitter Promoters
We have learned about the use of propaganda to spread conspiracy theories and current tactics being used to spread these theories. One popular theory, Qanon, has grown exponentially recently. Not only with the rise of social media and the pandemic keeping people home, but because Trump has not shown disapproval of the theory. Qanon is a dangerous theory because it takes control away from the American people and followers trust very few members of authority besides Trump. Many Qanon believers share other conspiracy beliefs and are also anti-vaccination, anti-mask, believers the coronavirus outbreak is fake, and other theories.
This theory is dangerous because it has such a huge audience. Young people on tik tok are being recruited for Qanon through the pizzagate conspiracy theory, where older generations are being recruited through facebook and other sites. The clever tacts of these theories are actually quite fascinating and the reason I chose this subject for my Leap Project.
The idea of an “influencer” has always been interesting to me. The fact that there are internet personalities that are arguable just as famous as movie stars, meaning they may have the same if not a bigger following, yet they have less prestige fame than maybe a movie star. This has sort of turned into the idea of micro-influencers, even anonymous ones. Small anonymous heroes for conspiracy theories such as twitter user @qanon76 may seem like they can’t spread that much harm, but then the tweet was on Fox and believers were ecstatic, which is why I think it is an important topic to discuss.
My process was simple once I found the article about the tweet on Fox. I went onto my account for class and just searched through @Qanon76’s profile. The likes, mentions, follows, interactions, replies, and found the things most interesting for the project. I asked myself what would make some worthy of retweeting for qanon, and why followers liked their tweets. I sort of struggled with this because some of qanon76’s tweets are so vague, but that is part of the movement. Rather than being the creator of new ideas, qanon76 is sort of a catalyst for chaos. As I was exploring and screen recording, I saw tweets that say JFK is still alive and arguments vehemently against qanon. One tweet from qanon76 and thousands of people have arguments, debates, comments, memes, and more. Qanon is able to spread so quickly because these promoters offer a place for all the ideas to come together in one big messy web of conspiracy.
I learned a lot doing this Leap Project and had a lot of fun analyzing Qanon76’s twitter account. It is sort of interesting that this is just one major believer, and not the “Q” user themselves, as it shows how massive, complex, and deeply rooted the theory is. We have to be careful about conspiracy promoters as they can be anonymous and seemingly innocent, though spreading dangerous ideas. I do not think I will ever look at a political opinion tweet the same again after this project, and will always wonder if a Trump supporter is also a qanon supporter. I plan to explore this theory more and how it is impacting our election, as it is historical and may help us understand how social media affects politics.
Script:
Hi, my name is Frankie Watson and today I am going to talk about online qanon promoters and why these accounts are problematic and dangerous, spreading a violent and disruptive movement.
For background, qanon is a conspiracy theory movement that basically combines a multitude of conspiracy theories, including pizzagate, that concludes the democratic party is run by a pedophilic cult and donald trump is the savior of the country, and the coronavirus outbreak is fake. The “evidence” for this has been dropped by an anonymous internet user, q, a secret member of the “deep state.”
QAnon’s rise to becoming mainstream was massively assisted by social media. Every day, thousands of users are tweeting about qanon. One twitter user, qanon76, has over 500,000 followers and thousands of tweets, all in support of trump or related to qanon in some way An article by Will Sommer for the Daily Beast written in march last year states that qanon76 was quoted in a fox news segment on free speech.
Qanon’s account is full of propaganda that supports Trump and the qanon movement, largely appealing to others through the idea of protecting innocent children. They also use moral high ground, such as the photo of these nuns. The idea is that as respected religious figures, nuns are moral and support trump, so a moral citizen of the united states and a good christian should also support trump. Qanon also attracts counter-arguments, where followers can engage in arguments with non-Q-anon believers or engage new recruits. With The trump-supporting retweets, mysterious messages, and all things qanon, an account like this is a hub of communication for qanon believers. As you can see, many followers think qanon is an influential voice for the movement and even reply to the propaganda with additional applicable propaganda. However,
Replies to qanon76 show a wide variety of beliefs in the conspiracy, some even frustrated with the user for not delivering on promised events.
So why does this matter? Why are accounts like qanon76 dangerous? Well first of all, qanon desperately needs validation. Conspiracy theories are easy to believe, as much of the point is that there is an elite group that has hidden all evidence. After the fox news situation, qanon believers were ecstatic the message received attention, the daily beast article reporting qanon76 only had 180 thousand followers at the time.
According to an insider article from a few weeks ago, there are at least 11 crimes from the past few years linked to the qanon movement, and the recent spread of the movement online has been exponential. Qanon has been known to not only change peoples’ political beliefs, but loved ones of qanon believers say the person is consumed by the theory and they don’t even know the person anymore.
What can we do? Well twitter has already begun to crack down, deleting thousands of accounts associated with qanon. Accounts like qanon76, though still running, are “shadowbanned” from being searched, meaning their tweets will not appear unless you are following them/seeking them out. Their tweets will not even appear in a search of the username, however replies will. IT is important to understand how these accounts work, drawing users in with a sense of mystery and then using the feeling of escapism and comfort in the movement to manipulate others. Accounts like qanon76 promote violent and dangerous untruths about politics that not only disrupt individual lives, but can lead to violence and distraction from real issues.
Greenspan, R. (2020, October 20). QAnon conspiracy theorists have been linked to 11 alleged crimes. Here are the incidents said to be connected to the movement and its followers. Retrieved November 02, 2020, from https://www.insider.com/qanon-violence-crime-conspiracy-theory-us-allegation-arrest-killing-gun-2020-8
Sommer, W. (2019, March 22). Fox News Promotes Pro-Trump QAnon Conspiracy Theorist. Retrieved November 02, 2020, from https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-and-friends-first-promotes-pro-trump-qanon-conspiracy-theorist
