QAnon, the U. S. -based plot over a poer-loving Kabbale of Satan that secretly regulates the world, is taking root in Europe, fueling fears about the coronavirus epidemic, analysts say.
Anti-vaccines, white supremacists and government skeptics in Europe are beginning to join the ill-defined but in favor of Donald Trump who emerged across the Atlantic in 2017.
Dozens of European branches of QAnon were created online, while protesters waved Q-themed messages at demonstrations in Berlin, London and Paris denouncing masks and other measures to curb the pandemic.
“While the expansion of the conspiracy in the United States has been an external and visual process, what has been less seen is the expansion and roots of QAnon in Europe,” NewsGuard warned in a report published in July. as a “catalyst”.
QAnon is possible for an anonymous, high-level government member named Q to come in to denounce an anti-Trump clique that runs the satanic network of trafficking foreign children and seeks to impose a “new global order. “
Trump did not reject the faceless and headless movement, and warmly congratulated QAnon’s declared believer, Marjorie Taylor Greene, after winning a number one republican contest in the Georgia Congress.
– Exponential expansion –
“We are witnessing the adaptation of these theories to EU-centric STORIES, or even where they merge with pre-existing conspiracies and groups,” says the NewsGuard report.
In July, the control body had approximately 450,000 known subscribers from QAnon sites in France, Italy, Germany and Britain.
China Labbe, NewsGuard’s editor for Europe, told the AFP that many websites, pages, computers and accounts gave the impression of being defeated in 2019 and early 2020, and that their numbers “continue to grow exponentially. “
In Europe, QAnon is spreading “the concept that the pandemic is a component of a plan imposed through the world’s elites – with Bill Gates being the most sensible – to vaccinate the majority of the world’s population,” according to the report. NewsGuard.
Some have also warned that social estating, imposed to curb the spread of the virus, created through the CIA as a torture technique.
Miro Dittrich, a German researcher who monitors online extremism, said it is not for conspiracies to expand in times of crisis; when other people feel they have no control, they seek to blame an opponent.
“Just like after September 11, in which there are many conspiracy theories, I am concerned that we are witnessing the same phenomenon with the pandemic,” Dittrich told AFP.
“The number of fans is expanding significantly and many are newcomers,” he added.
“Containment has played an important role, as other people are away from their social environment and spend a lot of time online. “
– ‘Everything goes’ –
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have banned thousands of QAnon accounts, however, fans are now turning to confidential online forums, sites that are widely noticed for selling incorrect information, and local conspiracy groups, which global.
They assume European disorders such as migration, economic collapse fuelled by coronaviruses or perceived loss of non-public freedoms.
Some cite Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel of Germany as “pawns” of the secret global Kabbale. They recommend that British Boris Johnson settle in via Q to help Trump fight the “deep state. “
A French YouTube channel, DeQodeurs, went from 21,500 subscribers to 68,500 in August, Labbé said.
Germany’s largest QAnon account, a Qlobal-Change YouTube channel, has more than 100,000 subscribers and its videos have around 17 million views.
“QAnon is a sponge from conspiracy theory,” Tristan Mendes France, who teaches virtual culture at the University of Paris.
“Everything is allowed, from anti-Semitism to 5G and face masks to science fiction.
“His ability to accommodate all these theories is phenomenal.
“The strength of fantasy is that it’s based on child crime,” he added. “If you question their struggle, you’re pedophilia. “
– “Worrying signs” –
Some celebrities have helped give wings to the conspiracy, such as the German vegan cookbook Attila Hildman, who participated in the protests against masks in Berlin this month.
British singer Robbie Williams warned in June that there was a fact in the debut “Pizzagate” conspiracy that sought to link Hillary Clinton to a child sex network.
Analysts are involved in QAnon’s quotes with the right. In Germany, he entregged among the nationalist theory of an orchestrated “great replacement” to supplant Europe’s white population through foreigners.
For Dittrich, the crossing is “logical” because teams have percentages of basic beliefs.
“There are weak but worrying signs” of unease to come,” said Andrea Palladino, a journalist for Italian L’Espresso, who tracks QAnon’s accounts, some of which have been called to arms.