Where in the world is Q, the imageboard user whose mysterious “drops” spawned an army of followers? Thanks to image metadata, we may finally have an answer -- albeit a very broad one.
bellingcat.com/news/rest-of-w…
Highlighted below are the only two time zones where, in our sample, two or more of Q’s images were taken. The vast majority were from the Pacific time zone.
Most images in Q drops don’t have enough useful metadata to analyse, but a specific subset does. They're screenshots from a phone. In the “DateCreated” field, we found timestamps that reveal the time when Q took these screenshots, just before posting a drop with them attached.
There’s no time zone info in DateCreated, but by subtracting it from the drop’s UTC timestamp, we can infer the time zone where Q took the screenshots.

This “time diff” represents the time between Q taking the screenshot & posting the drop, plus the UTC offset of Q’s time zone.
Our sample of unique images with metadata, though it consists of only 29 images, covers almost Q’s entire operational history. It runs from November 7, 2011 (on 4chan, before Q’s first tripcode) to September 23, 2020.
In all this time, Q only posted from UTC +8 on three dates. By contrast, Q posted from the Pacific time zone on 16 separate dates. This suggests Q may be based in the Pacific time zone and has travelled to East Asia.
We've been able to geolocate the images from East Asia, most likely, to several hotels in Shanghai, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Chongqing.
As millions of people live in both these time zones, these findings do not prove that any particular individual as being Q. But they do offer a starting point to refine the search.
Read the article and access an interactive dataset here, thanks to the hard work and sharp minds of @QOrigins, @BobPythonic and @kunstderfuge1.
bellingcat.com/news/rest-of-w…
If you're interested in reading more of our work on the QAnon conspiracy theory, access Bellingcat's complete oeuvre (Qoeuvre?) here:
bellingcat.com/tag/qanon/

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More from @bellingcat

10 May
Bellingcat and @cerosetenta are monitoring the protests in Colombia, collecting and analyzing videos of police brutality against demonstrators.
We're launching a mapping platform to help track police violence during this latest round of protests.
cerosetenta.uniandes.edu.co/represion-y-mu…
Previously, we assisted @cerosetenta with the #9S project, which focused on police violence against demonstrators at five locations in and around Bogotá during the 9 September 2020 protests.
Watch those reports here:
youtube.com/playlist?list=…
Our collaboration with @cerosetenta follows our first joint investigation in 2019 conducted alongside @Newsy, which identified the badge number of the police officer who killed a student named Dilan Cruz at a protest in Bogotá that year.
Read 4 tweets
3 May
We are reworking how we're processing donations to maximize the $ that Meduza receives. Instead of directly signing up to this webinar via our payment platform, please send a 200 EUR or USD donation to Meduza directly. Forward us the receipt and we'll send you webinar info!
Please see more information on the webinar (time, topics, etc.) and direct instructions on this receipt-forwarding thing here: events.eventzilla.net/e/bellingcat-o…
We're refunding the payments for the 14 (!) people who have registered, so that they can directly donate the money to Meduza. They'll get the most money out of it as possible, without worrying about extra VAT/service fees. If you already signed up, we sent you an email just now.
Read 4 tweets
30 Apr
We've put all information about our Digital Showcase Series on one page! You can register for upcoming free events (one on Ukrainian corruption, and one on investigating the Darknet and Telegram) there, and watch recordings of our previous showcases.
bellingcat.com/resources/2021…
Our next digital showcase will be on May 7, 3pm Kyiv time, featuring Anna Kalyuzhna from @bihusinfo, in Ukrainian. She will detail digital investigative methods in uncovering financial corruption. Check the page below to bookmark the Zoom webinar link.
bellingcat.com/resources/2021…
On Saturday (May 8) at 4pm Moscow/2pm London, @Soshnikoff will show how to use the darkweb and Telegram for journalistic investigations. The session will be led in Russian.
Find the Zoom webinar link below, and bookmark it for next weekend:
bellingcat.com/resources/2021…
Read 5 tweets
30 Apr
Read the latest in our efforts to help provide new details around child exploitation cases.

New from @Mabl2K bellingcat.com/news/2021/04/3…
@Mabl2K In 2015, the #FBI released images of John Doe 29. This individual is NOT accused of committing any abuse but may have critical information pertaining to the identity of a child victim in an ongoing sexual exploitation investigation
Read 13 tweets
26 Apr
The latest from Respekt, @the_ins_ru and Bellingcat, revealing more details into the GRU's operations in Europe, evidencing how there were linked to the conflict in Ukraine bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
We previously identified more team members of the GRU team responsible for the Vrbetice warehouse explosion in Czechia, and that it included the most senior leadership of the unit.
bellingcat.com/news/2021/04/2…
Two open questions remain the subject of speculation by the press: First, whether the sabotage operation in Czechia in 2014 is linked to the poisoning of the arms manufacturer Emilian Gebrev in 2015 bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-eu…
Read 12 tweets
23 Apr
India’s coronavirus crisis continues to escalate as it becomes one of the most severely hit countries in the world to date.

In desperation, many are turning to social media sites such as Twitter to find medical resources bellingcat.com/news/2021/04/2…
These cries for help are poignant and heartbreaking.

But they also provide a window of observation into the speed of escalation of the crisis and the dangers Covid-19 still poses.

Hashtags such as #IndiaNeedsOxygen & #COVIDEmergency2021 have become commonplace
During March, there were on average only five tweets per day (excluding retweets) containing the keywords “delhi” and “urgent”.

By April 21, this had increased to over 400, with a new request for help sent every 24 seconds late in the evening on April 22.
Read 8 tweets

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