Like many conspiracy theories, QAnon was born in the dark corners of the web, first emerging on an anonymous message board in October 2017. The conspiracy theory, QAnon, is doing more harm than good in the battle to end child trafficking. If the delusion continues to fester and spread, the violence is sure to continue. There is nothing wrong with expressing concerns about child exploitation, which is real and harmful. QAnon metastasized out of "Pizzagate," a false conspiracy theory that circulated during the 2016 election, which held that prominent Democratic Party figures were running a child … The children were being sodomized in secret underground tunnels. One recent analysis found that membership of UK-specific Q Facebook groups has shot up by a whopping 800 per cent since March this year. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. News. or redistributed. The QAnon movement, in contrast, is bound together by a conspiracy theory involving shadowy networks of child sex traffickers from the Democratic Party to … The core of QAnon is the false theory that Trump was elected to root out a secret child-sex trafficking ring run by Satanic, cannibalistic Democratic politicians and celebrities. People supporting QAnon began appearing at Trump campaign rallies in 2018 and the president has retweeted QAnon-affiliated accounts dozens of times. Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey. Nick Givas is a reporter with Fox News. Scientists who are studying where the virus originated have generally concluded it emerged in nature and was passed on to humans after passing through animals, starting likely in a bat or pangolin. My acquaintance is not a QAnon believer. But as in the abortion debate, the innocent victims in the QAnon conspiracy theory only exist in conservatives’ minds. It feels like a drug, you can’t wait for your next hit. In addition, Twitter said it would stop highlighting and recommending tweets associated with QAnon, Fox 8 reported. But the gist of it is that national Democrats, aided by Hollywood and a group of “global elites”, are running a massive ring devoted to the abduction, trafficking, torture, sexual abuse and cannibalization of children, all with the purpose of fulfilling the rituals of their Satanic faith. This delusion has already endangered innocent people and taken lives: one supporter of QAnon famously arrived at Comet Ping Pong with a rifle that he shot into the air, and another QAnon believer assassinated an alleged mob boss on Staten Island whom he reportedly believed was involved in the pedophile ring. Holmseth claimed that he was the only person … Why do conservatives periodically become fixated on elaborate conspiracy theories involving the rape and torture of children? The details of the QAnon narrative don’t bear any relation to the way that child sexual abuse actually happens. According to the Centers for Disease Control, about one in four girls and one in 13 boys experience sexual abuse sometime in childhood – an alarmingly high number. And the algorithms that control social media platforms know this. The QAnon conspiracy theory is vast, complicated and ever changing, and its adherents are constantly folding new events and personalities into its master narrative. Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). has cited QAnon as a potential domestic terror threat, and social networks have begun trying to pull QAnon groups off their platforms. (A Facebook spokesman said: “We temporarily blocked the hashtag as it was surfacing low-quality content. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click here. The truth about child sex trafficking, these experts told me, is much less salacious than QAnon would have you believe. "Don't believe everything you read, because 90 per cent of it is just fake - just lies and rubbish. After the Wayfair incident, the Polaris Project, a nonprofit organization that runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline, issued a news release saying its hotline had been overwhelmed with false reports. “With Wayfair, both accounts on the left and right were amplifying the content,” Mr. Argentino said. QAnon believers have organized virulent harassment campaigns against people they accuse of being pedophiles, including celebrities like Chrissy Teigen and Ellen DeGeneres. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. The truth about child sex trafficking, these experts told me, is much less salacious than QAnon would have you believe. In further outlandish claims, it declared the hero behind the discovery was none other than President Donald Trump himself - whom Q followers believe is the only person who can stop the elites. The conspiracy theory went viral, and QAnon believers began sprinkling in their own supposedly incriminating details. Several days later, Roose said he saw the hashtag trending on Twitter. Others have suggested falsely that Bill Gates, his foundation, or both had planned the pandemic. Sometimes the rally-goers wear T-shirts bearing the acronym “WWG1WGA,” which stands for “Where we go one we go all,” a fist-pumping slogan for adherents of the elaborate and baseless online conspiracy theory called QAnon. The message board had been cut off by its security provider after the El Paso mass shooting, and while 8chan’s owner, Jim Watkins, was struggling to bring a replacement site online, some QAnon believers appeared to be losing interest. Originating during the 2016 presidential campaign, this falsehood claimed that emails exposed by Wikileaks showed Democrats with ties to Hillary Clinton had been running a child-sex ring from the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizzeria. Conspiracy theories often have a snowballing effect: if someone believes in one, they’re more likely to believe in others. Scientists and others, including defense and intelligence experts, have said there’s no basis for believing the virus was intentionally released as a bioweapon and that it's false to claim Democrats engineered the release to hurt the president. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Dozens of QAnon-affiliated candidates are running for office this year. But like many social media users in recent weeks, she had been drawn in by the latest QAnon outreach strategy. Last year, a … "I lay awake at night and worry if my brother’s going to shoot a bunch of protesters,” one relative admitted to The Guardian, adding: “He couldn’t tell what reality was.". “When I talk to my friends in the anti-trafficking movement, we’ll say, ‘Oh, it’s Pizzagate all over again,’” Ms. Williamson of Love146 said. The stories spun by QAnon content for this – as far as I can tell – a man named Charles... And rubbish term for the collision of the “ Save the children ” pivot has been a mixed.! Actually is, and I was getting scared people they know it centers... T involve kidnapping or physically forcing minors into sex have allowed people to open their,! And consequential conspiracy theory Group showing up to the movement, similarly to a of... To QAnon with our Privacy & Cookie Policy powerful name in News delivered first thing every to. Person willing and able to mount an attack against them s happening in some secret cabal scary. 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