QAnon, the U. S. -based plot about a clique of Satan-loving paedophiles 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 QAnon branches 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 conspiracy in the United States has been an external and visual process, what has been seen less 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 member of the government named Q to report an anti-Trump clique that runs the satanic network of trafficking foreign children and seeks to impose a “new global order. “
Trump did not repudiate 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 seeing these theories adapt to EU-centric narratives, or even those that merge with pre-existing conspiracies and groups,” the NewsGuard report says.
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 across the world’s elites—with Bill Gates as the most sensible—to vaccinate the majority of the world’s population,” according to the NewsGuard report.
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.
“As after 9/11, which has a lot of conspiracy theories, I’m worried that we’re witnessing the same phenomenon with the pandemic,” Dittrich told the 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 the French Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel of Germany as “pawns” of the secret global clique. They recommend that Boris Johnson of Britain settle through 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 conspiracy theory sponge”, 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 is 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 mainly 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 crossover is “logical” because teams percentage 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.