As Twitter and Facebook crack down on those spreading baseless QAnon conspiracies, adherents are finding other apps to communicate on, including platforms where they may be further radicalized.
January brought a one-two punch that should have knocked out the fantastical, false QAnon conspiracy theory.
After the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the social media platforms that had long allowed the falsehoods to spread like wildfire namely Twitter, Facebook and YouTube got more aggressive in cracking down on accounts promoting QAnon.
Just two weeks later, Joe Biden was inaugurated president. That stunned those adherents who believed, among other things, that Donald Trump would stay in office for another term and that he would arrest and execute his political enemies. There s no one cohesive narrative that s really emerged yet. And I pin that on [QAnon] not really having a leader right now, said Mike Rothschild, a conspiracy-theory researcher who is writing a book about QAnon.
Originally published on January 31, 2021 11:35 am
January brought a one-two punch that should have knocked out the fantastical, false QAnon conspiracy theory.
After the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the social media platforms that had long allowed the falsehoods to spread like wildfire namely Twitter, Facebook and YouTube got more aggressive in cracking down on accounts promoting QAnon.
Just two weeks later, Joe Biden was inaugurated president. That stunned those adherents who believed, among other things, that Donald Trump would stay in office for another term and that he would arrest and execute his political enemies. There s no one cohesive narrative that s really emerged yet. And I pin that on [QAnon] not really having a leader right now, said Mike Rothschild, a conspiracy theory researcher who is writing a book about QAnon.
As Twitter and Facebook crack down on those spreading baseless QAnon conspiracies, adherents are finding other apps to communicate on, including platforms where they may be further radicalized.
Rolling Stone Is Marjorie Taylor Greene Becoming the New Face of QAnon?
“She ticks all the boxes of someone who could potentially become a thought leader in the Q community,” says one expert
By Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call/AP
Marjorie Taylor Greene has had a busy few days since being sworn into Congress. Known in the mainstream media as the “Qanon congresswoman” due to her support for the baseless far-right conspiracy theory QAnon, which posits the existence of a deep state cabal of left-wing cannibals and pedophiles angling for a new world order, Greene’s first big move in Congress was a dramatic announcement that she was filing for articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden. Reporters have since dredged up the congresswoman’s increasingly bizarre and unhinged social posts from her past, from her old Facebook posts calling for the execution of Democrats to her claims that the Parkland and Sandy Hook school shootings were “false flag”