What is the “QAnon” movement, these conspirators who support Trump?

• Twitter announced this week that it had deleted more than 7,000 accounts linked to the QAnon movement, a pro-Trump nebula, which spreads conspiracy theories online.
• Born in 2017, this movement "which draws on hatred and anti-Semitic rhetoric" has spread in American politics.
• "The QAnons have now become mainstream with even candidates for Congress", explains Tristan Mendès-France, associate lecturer at the University of Paris Diderot, specialist in digital cultures.

"The United States is controlled by occult powers that only Donald Trump can counter if he is re-elected"…. This conspiracy theory, propagated on social networks by the “QAnon” movement, is now gathering more and more followers, and is now making its way into the corridors of the White House. To limit the circulation of content linked to its conspiratorial theories, Twitter announced this week that it had deleted more than 7,000 accounts linked to this movement.

"This week we are taking more action against so-called 'QAnon' activity," the network announced through its dedicated security account, in the name of its policy on "behaviors with the potential to cause harm in real life ". The most problematic QAnon accounts were therefore “permanently suspended”. These include those who are considered guilty of coordinated and targeted harassment, a phenomenon that has grown in recent weeks. "We have decided to act now because its followers are causing more and more harm," said a spokesperson for Twitter, who estimates that around 150,000 accounts should be affected by these measures.

We will permanently suspend accounts Tweeting about these topics that we know are engaged in violations of our multi-account policy, coordinating abuse around individual victims, or are attempting to evade a previous suspension - something we've seen more of in recent weeks.

An army of "digital soldiers"

Born in 2017, QAnon refers to a pro-Trump nebula, which spreads conspiracy theories online. According to its followers, the United States has been ruled for decades by the "deep state", a secret organization bringing together senior government officials, the Clintons, the Obamas, the Rothschilds, the powerful investor George Soros, stars of Hollywood and other members of the world's elite. They would be involved "in international pedophile networks" and "want to create a new world order" in which the States would have given up their sovereignty for the benefit of this elite.

The first "cryptic" messages appeared in October 2017, written by a mysterious "Q", named after a high level accreditation to the US Department of Energy. According to his supporters, Q is a mole in the president's inner circle, who has decided to reveal tidbits of information about this global scheming on discussion forums like 4Chan. The information is then propagated on major social networks.

QAnon ideology has spread in American politics

The conspiracy movement has spread thanks to an army of "digital soldiers," according to the Soufan Center, a US center for security studies. It has also spread abroad, in Europe and as far as Australia. The QAnon ideology has even spread into American politics. Followers of the movement were displayed in several meetings of Donald Trump, in particular by displaying posters bearing the letter Q or the slogan of the movement: "Where we go one, we go all" ("Where one of us goes, we will all ”), sometimes reduced to its initials WWG1WGA. All believe that the Republican billionaire will overcome the conspiracy of international elites and return power to the people.

On July 4, Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn posted a video on Twitter in which he repeats the slogan QAnon after pledging allegiance to the US constitution, along with the hashtag "Take an oath ". The video had been "liked" more than 100,000 times Thursday. Donald Trump's youngest son Eric also echoed part of that slogan in June, in an Instagram post he later deleted. The president himself, who regularly calls the mainstream media “fake news,” has retweeted messages from declared Q supporters at least 90 times in recent months, according to Media Matters.

#TakeTheOath 🇺🇸
Happy 4th of July 🇺🇸
God Bless America 🇺🇸
@ SidneyPowell1
@molmccann
@BarbaraRedgate
@ JosephJFlynn1
@GoJackFlynn
@flynn_neill
@ lofly727
@TJHproject
🇺🇸🇺 🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Z2LCsgHLkw

"They have now become mainstream with even candidates for Congress"

According to the organization Media Matters, a left-wing research site that tracks conservative media, nearly 60 candidates - mostly conservatives - in the November parliamentary elections are claiming it today. “Twitter is trying to reduce the virality of QAnons. Too little, too late in my opinion. They have now become mainstream with even candidates for Congress ”, explains Tristan Mendès-France, associate lecturer at Paris Diderot University, specialist in digital cultures.

If some of the candidates made the buzz by telling for example that Beyoncé was posing as a Black and that the lyrics of her songs were riddled with satanic references, few are those who have a chance to be elected. The few candidates linked to QAnon who scored well in important constituencies have distanced themselves from this theory.

Those who think that the #qanon movement is an epiphenomenon are wrong. There are about sixty Congress candidates who support him (including a majority of Republicans, but not only). https://t.co/Bsb7K900dz

A movement "which draws on hatred and anti-Semitic rhetoric"

This movement is causing a lot of concern today. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an American organization fighting against extremism, cited videos of the movement at the end of June "which draws on anti-Semitic hatred and rhetoric". In 2019, the FBI even considered this movement as a risk of an “internal terrorist threat”. More recently, in early July, an armed man was arrested near the residence of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa. He was an "avid consumer of conspiracies" propagated by QAnon, says the Soufan center.

Security experts now fear that its supporters will join extremist and white supremacist activists like the “Boogaloo,” anti-government activists who call for civil war. The Soufan center is concerned that a defeat of Donald Trump in November "encourages QAnon supporters to acts of violence."

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• Anti-semitism
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