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Has a friend, almost overnight, become certain masks are for slaves, pedophiles run the world, and Donald Trump is saving it?

You're not alone.

Here's how QAnon and Facebook created the viral anti-mask tirade — and radicalized your friends.
nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Researchers saw QAnon invade wellness, religious, and new age communities on Facebook right as the pandemic began to grip the U.S.

Now, people who were interested in stuff like crystals and energy believe Trump is a "light worker," saving the children.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
So! You probably know Melissa Rein Lively as QAnon Karen. She trashed the mask section of a Target, then said she was "QAnon's spokesperson."

Five months before that, she "bought a hazmat suit," freaked out about COVID.

What changed? Her Facebook groups.
nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
You know Cristina Gomez from her anti-mask tirade at a Palm Beach County board meeting, accusing everyone of pedophilia.

One month before that, she wasn't even a Trump fan.

What changed? Facebook groups and YouTube.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Extremism experts say QAnon is radicalizing people at warp speed because, in a pandemic and recession, fighting against the Satanic cannibals gives them power.

They're taking advantage of what @_Shan_Martinez_ calls a "Trauma pandemic."

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
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Ben Collins
@oneunderscore__
NEW: Facebook removes troll farm posing as African-American support for Donald Trump, QAnon believers

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
The accounts posing as pro-Trump African-Americans and QAnon believers were part of a network based in Romania.

Motivations are unclear, but it could be a cutout for a different country's info warfare campaign.

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Facebook took down ANOTHER network of fake accounts tied to The Epoch Times and its parent company.

They had racked up 2 million followers with COVID conspiracies, protest conspiracies, and pro-Trump culture war stuff like this:

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Read 5 tweets
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Ben Collins
@oneunderscore__
I do wonder when the traditional political media will start to realize that QAnon is not a fringe element.

People are stuck inside watching YouTube videos all day looking for quick, magical answers. QAnon provides that. It is a sizable part of the American electorate.
Part of the reason QAnon is so undercovered is because you have to admit to yourself how dark the landscape is.

Easier to keep talking about congressional hearings than to look up and see a portion of the country has been captured by a cult obsessed with political violence.
This is an enormous part of it.

You don’t have to be a card-carrying Q guy, or even know what it is, to believe in parts of it.

Just ask somebody who doesn’t live in a city how many times they’ve heard Hillary’s arrest is imminent.

Read 6 tweets
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Ben Collins
@oneunderscore__
Exclusive from me + @brandyzadrozny:



Twitter bans 7,000 QAnon accounts, limits 150,000 others as part of broad crackdown

nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Twitter will ban QAnon-related terms from appearing in trending topics and its search feature, ban known QAnon-related URLs, and ban “swarming” of victims who are baselessly targeted by coordinated harassment campaigns pushed by its followers.
nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
QAnon followers have been targeting perceived political enemies of Donald Trump in recent weeks with harassment campaigns, sometimes with threats of violence, accusing them of being child-eating cannibals.

Twitter is looking to stomp that out.
nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
Read 6 tweets

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