\u2018Deep state\u2019<\/h3>\n
In the U.S., discussion about QAnon has broken into the political mainstream. When Trump was asked to disavow the group at a recent town hall event, he first said<\/a> he knew \u201cnothing about QAnon\u201d but then added: \u201cI do know that they are very much against pedophilia, and I agree with that.\u201d<\/p>\n YouTube and Facebook have also acted to remove some QAnon content<\/a>, though the conspiracy theory remains at large online.<\/p>\n In Europe, the movement has so far remained mostly confined to the fringes, where some groups openly embrace<\/a> QAnon, often splicing American phrases like \u201cdeep state\u201d together with longstanding domestic bugbears like the use of vaccines to protect children against disease. Others borrow heavily from QAnon\u2019s ideas \u2014 accusing Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, for example, of being a puppet of the global elite \u2014 to push attacks against their country\u2019s governments.<\/p>\n Even more groups view QAnon and its anti-establishment message as evidence that the COVID-19 crisis is overstated and national lockdown measures are undemocratic.<\/p>\n \u201cWake up, it\u2019s not about the virus, the Great Reset is coming!\u201d a British Facebook group with ties to the QAnon movement that has more than 17,000 followers posted on October 14. The post made a false connection between an event promoted by Prince Charles on sustainable business and the conspiracy theory\u2019s belief that an overhaul of the global order is imminent.<\/p>\n Groups from the left and right have all found aspects of QAnon appealing. The conspiracy theory attacks a wide variety of opponents and offers multiple narratives from which to choose, according to misinformation experts who have tracked QAnon\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n These analysts warn that the theory has become particularly appealing to the vocal minority<\/a> in Europe that opposes European government efforts to tackle the coronavirus. Several anti-lockdown protests \u2014 with a heavy dose of QAnon rhetoric \u2014 have taken place recently as officials from London to Lisbon try to push back the wave of new coronavirus cases.<\/p>\n \u201cOvert QAnon messaging is often far-fetched for the average person to understand,\u201d said Anna-Sophie Harling<\/a>, managing director for Europe at NewsGuard, a social media analytics firm that tracks misinformation. \u201cBut it\u2019s not difficult for someone who\u2019s lost his job and hasn\u2019t been affected by the coronavirus to come across these ideas online and jump to the conclusion that something is going on.\u201d<\/p>\n For a conspiracy theory that\u2019s gaining ground in Europe, QAnon remains fundamentally American.<\/p>\n Its roots date back to late 2017 when an anonymous social media user \u2014 using the name Q \u2014 published<\/a> several cryptic messages on 4Chan, a platform often used by fringe conspiracy theorists and online extremists.<\/p>\n Those posts, known as Q-drops, quickly spiraled into a belief that Trump was fighting a war against a so-called deep state of government insiders, global elites and pedophiles bent on overthrowing his administration. Followers eagerly hunt the web for QAnon clues, dissecting the latest updates in rambling message board conversations, Facebook posts and YouTube videos.<\/p>\n QAnon has embraced fast-changing global events to fit its narrative, and has become so mainstream that more than 20 candidates in next month\u2019s U.S. election<\/a> are vocal followers<\/a> of the movement.<\/p>\n When Robert Mueller published his report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, QAnon believers saw it, instead, as an investigation into pedophiles within the U.S. government. They also co-opted the so-called Pizzagate theory \u2014 debunked claims that several high-profile Democratic lawmakers were part of a human-trafficking and child sex ring. Similar debunked claims have also surfaced in Brazil, Italy and France.<\/p>\n \u201cQAnon is about fighting against global elites,\u201d said Tristan Mendes, an associate lecturer at the University of Paris who has tracked the movement\u2019s growth in France. \u201cWhen it lost its American attachment when it went global, it adapted to the natural context in all the countries where it landed.\u201d<\/p>\n In Europe, links to this fringe conspiracy started small \u2014 but have snowballed during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n In late 2018, a number of Facebook groups, encrypted-messaging groups and websites, mostly within far-right communities in the United Kingdom and Germany, sprouted up, often parroting U.S. theories about a global conspiracy to undermine Trump\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n These European groups still remain far smaller than their U.S. counterparts, and their supporters, collectively, number in the hundreds of thousands versus the millions across the Atlantic, according to a recent analysis<\/a> by Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based think tank that tracks online extremism.<\/p>\n But the recent pandemic has provided ample room for growth.<\/p>\n In Germany, home to the largest QAnon community outside the English-speaking world, far-right groups \u2014 already well-trained in digital tactics \u2014 were some of the first to embrace<\/a> QAnon.<\/p>\n \u201cEver since the refugee crisis, in the conspiracy and far-right sphere, Merkel is the arch enemy,\u201d said Jakob Guhl, a researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue who monitors extremist movements in Germany. \u201cTrump is seen as the liberator from the Merkel regime.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet the group\u2019s appeal extends far beyond extremist fringe groups.<\/p>\n On Qlobal-Change, a German-language YouTube channel which was shut down by Google on October 15, more than 100,000 followers \u2014 a fourfold increase in less than a year \u2014 could watch dubbed versions of Trump\u2019s campaign speeches. The comments section married far-right, anti-Semitic tirades with attacks on Merkel and her government\u2019s response to COVID-19.<\/p>\n In multiple German channels \u2014 many with tens of thousands of members \u2014 on Telegram, the encrypted-messaging service, anti-vaccine viral memes are posted alongside conspiracy theories alleging that Microsoft founder Bill Gates created the global pandemic for his own economic gain. Others criticize NATO as an American-led deep-state conspiracy, while hailing Trump as the savior of the German people.<\/p>\n Similar groups have sprung up across Europe, blending American-style QAnon language with existing conspiracy theories and anti-government rhetoric, according to POLITICO\u2019s analysis.<\/p>\n In France, Qactus.fr, a local website, has jumped to the 314st-most popular site in the country, based on social media engagement Read More \u2013 Source<\/a><\/p>\n [contf] [contfnew] [contfnewc] [contfnewc]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LONDON \u2014 QAnon has crossed the Atlantic \u2014 and it\u2019s found fer..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech"],"yoast_head":"\nThe birth of QAnon<\/h3>\n
\u2018Arch enemy\u2019 Merkel<\/h3>\n
Anti-vax<\/h3>\n
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<\/p>\npolitico<\/a><\/h5>\n