QAnon in it's form under Trump may no longer exist. However, I do not think that we can say QAnon or its legacy is finished. This month alone we saw political actors and elected officials speak or attend a QAnon conference.
There are multiple events coming up linked to QAnon or those willing to leverage QAnon.
Is it a fringe conspiracy theory? No. Is "Q" active? No. Are influencers as capable to mobilize people as before? No. However, QAnon and it's conspiracy theories have found a home in the GOP
The deplatforming, the loss of the election for Trump, the absence of Q has impacted the mass movement. Yet the ideology and the adherents haven't gone anyone. Their need behind their adherence to QAnon and their conspiratorial thinking has not disappeared.
Therefore we cannot simply say QAnon is done. That is extremely misleading. If one spend enough time on alt-tech extremist ecosystems. The presence of QAnon is still felt.
What we need to discuss is A) it's mainstreaming into a political narrative, B) are for QAnon adherents moving to more extreme movements, C) are they deradicalizing, or D) are they moving to other Conspriacy theory movements.
Good point to be added to my thread for extra consideration
This was already stated by @AlexBNewhouse but I'm going to hammer this in: those in the Accelerationist ecosystem never went away after a named group goes belly up. These actors were still present and active. The return to using FKD is in part branding.
The group was recently proscribed by several countries & it's a known brand in IMVE ecosystems & by the media. Falling for the brand is a failure in proper investigation, when those who monitor these spaces regularly would be able to say these actors haven't magically reappeared.
Part of this has come to the surface due to the arrest of the individual from InjektDivision who was arrested last week. Following that event FKD endorsed them as the two networks mutually backed each other. The community grew to 100 after the incident and the media reporting.
Always good to see the neo-nazi edge lords celebrating pride month.
@TikTokCanada@tiktok_us take note of how they are embedding images in the video (2.4 million views) and also the behavioral and communal reinforcing in the chat.
To note, the image is not one that would be hashed, rather they are appropriating the new pride flag, the chart upward emoji 📈 in this context is being used for a nazi salute.
The reason I am highlighting this is because there is no easy way for platforms to keep on top of these new trends and new content, that fall outside of the known hate and violent content that exists. this is why trusted partners with SMEs are important.
This is a great report by @Graphika_NYC "Actors linked to previous Russian information operations continue to target American far-right communities with inflammatory and politically-divisive messaging, leveraging alternative online platforms" graphika.com/reports/posing…
what they found was a sustained effort to target far-right communities on alternative online platforms. The campaign was mostly on patriots[.]win where it utilizes a set of 20 inauthentic accounts as messaging vectors and amplifiers.
accounts on Gab and Parler were also used and were part of the earlier NAEBC operation. On multiple occasions, they posted the same unique content, usually closely after but sometimes before it appeared on patriots[.]win
This is a good read that brings up key policy points. As the piece states "Some argue, however, that the labeling of these organisations would not have the desired impact in terms of stopping attacks, because of the decentralised and individualistic nature of far-right groups."
Each country also has different strategies when it comes to labeling countries and some are legalistic, whole others are political. Also labeling a group might give it more credibility than it really has.
It was a multi agency operation over the past week which led to the arrest of the target and foil his plan to perpetuate a mass shooting. cnn.com/2021/05/30/us/…
KCSO investigators had made contact and conversed with the target to confirmed his affiliation and networks within ideologically motivated violent extremist communities
Four days ago on May 27 KCSO had intercepted a message indicating that the target was preparing to proceed with a mass shooting and made specific threat that included WalMart as a target location.
If I just heard this correctly, someone asked Flynn why what happened in Myanmar hasn't happened here (in the US) and Flynn said it should.... Now that is Flynn a former national security advisor saying a military coup should take place in the US.
So just relistened to the bit from the QAnon Conference stream and Flynn just said a military coup should happen in the US... Now this is something that is part of QAnon (the military liberating the nation from the Deep State Cabal). But Flynn is not an anonymous chan poster.
It's important to not that QAnon have generally been for what is happening I Myanmar. Military coups for adherents are a legitimate way to destroy democratic institutions. But the fact that individuals like Flynn is advocating for this vs ragtag QAnon influencers hits differently