The Boom Before The Ban: QAnon and Facebook

The Boom
Before the Ban:

QAnon and Facebook
Ciaran O’Connor, Cooper Gatewood,
Kendrick McDonald and Sarah Brandt
2 ‘THE GREAT REPLACEMENT’: THE VIOLENT CONSEQUENCES OF MAINSTREAMED EXTREMISM / Document title:
About this report About NewsGuard
This report is a collaboration between the Institute Launched in March 2018 by media entrepreneur and
for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) and the nonpartisan award-winning journalist Steven Brill and former Wall
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QAnon-related contents on Facebook during a provides credibility ratings and detailed “Nutrition
period of increased activity, just before the platform Labels” for thousands of news and information websites.
implemented moderation of public contents spreading NewsGuard rates all the news and information websites
the conspiracy theory. Combining quantitative and that account for 95% of online engagement across the
qualitative analysis, this report looks at key trends in US, UK, Germany, France, and Italy. NewsGuard products
discussions around QAnon, prominent accounts in that include NewsGuard, HealthGuard, and BrandGuard,
discussion, and domains – particularly news websites which helps marketers concerned about their brand
– that were frequently shared alongside QAnon safety, and the Misinformation Fingerprints catalogue of
contents on Facebook. This report also recommends top hoaxes.
some steps to be taken by technology companies,
governments and the media when seeking to counter NewsGuard rates each site based on nine apolitical
the spread of problematic conspiracy theories like criteria of journalistic practice, including whether a
QAnon on social media. site repeatedly publishes false content, whether it
regularly corrects or clarifies errors, and whether it
avoids deceptive headlines. It awards weighted points
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The Boom Before the Ban:
QAnon and Facebook
3 ‘THE GREAT REPLACEMENT’: THE VIOLENT CONSEQUENCES OF MAINSTREAMED EXTREMISM / Document title:
About the authors Acknowledgements
Ciaran O’Connor is an Analyst on ISD’s Digital Analysis We would like to express our gratitude to members
Unit with expertise on the far-right and disinformation of the ISD, especially Chloe Colliver, Jacob Davey and
environment online and open-source research Natasha Bach for their helpful feedback and revisions.
methodologies. Before joining ISD, Ciaran worked
with Storyful news agency. He has an MSc in Political Similarly, we’re thankful for the editorial input from
Communication Science from the University of members of NewsGuard’s senior staff: Steven Brill,
Amsterdam and is currently learning Dutch. Gordon Crovitz, Eric Effron, Amy Westfeldt and Matt
Skibinski.
Cooper Gatewood is a Manager within ISD’s Digital
Analysis Unit, focusing on quantitative research into We would also like to thank our partners at the Centre
the spread of hateful and polarising narratives online, for the Analysis of Social Media, in particular Jeremy
and how they are leveraged by extremist actors. Cooper Reffin, Nestor Prieto Chavana and Rupert Menneer for
also develops monitoring and evaluation frameworks their support in the data analysis.
to measure the impact of many of ISD’s intervention
projects. Cooper is currently contributing to ISD’s We also thank Jo Johnson for her meticulous copy
research on disinformation campaigns, particularly editing of this report.
those aimed to influence and disrupt election
processes. Any mistakes or omissions are the authors’ own.
Kendrick McDonald is Senior Analyst and Deputy

Editor for Rapid Response at NewsGuard. He leads
many of the newsroom’s investigative projects and
trains reporters in digital verification. Before joining
NewsGuard, Kendrick worked as a fact-checker and
researcher for GQ, Smithsonian Magazine, and Type
Investigations. He was also an editorial assistant for
NewsGuard’s co-CEO, Steven Brill. He graduated
from Yale University.
Sarah Brandt is Vice President of News Literacy

Programs at NewsGuard, where she manages
NewsGuard’s partnerships with educators, researchers,
and more than 750 public libraries in the US and
Europe. Before joining NewsGuard, Brandt worked as
an Associate Consultant for Bain & Company, a global
management consulting firm. She graduated from
Yale University.
www.isdglobal.org www.newsguardtech.com 3
QAnon and Facebook
Contents
About This Report 2

About ISD 2
About NewsGuard 2
About the authors 3
Acknowledgements 3
Contents4
Executive summary 6
Glossary 8
Introduction 9
– Key findings 11
Methodology 13
– Data collection 13
– Keyword selection 13
– Narrative analysis 14
– Domain analysis 14
Overall trends 15
– Volume over time 15
– Notable peaks in volume: President Trump comments on QAnon for the first time 15
– August surge 16
Key themes 18
– QAnon redpilling 18
– COVID-19 19
– Save The Children 20
– Connecting elites to sex-trafficking crimes 21
– Obamagate/Spygate 22
– Adrenochrome 24
QAnon Superspreader 25
Key actors 27
Most shared domains/links 29
– Red-rated sites 30
– Green-Rated sites 39
QAnon and Facebook
– Other types of websites 42

– Platforms 42
– E-commerce 44
Larry Cook 45
QAnon international 46
– Why the international spread? 52
– Spanish-language QAnon 47
– Portuguese-language QAnon 47
– Non-US news sites 48
Conclusion 53
– Superspreader profiles 53
– Misinformation websites 54
– International spread 55
– Recommendations 55
Appendix A – Keyword list 57
References 58
QAnon and Facebook
Executive Summary
In the summer of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic False claims and disinformation about the severity
spread across the world and forced many inside for of COVID-19, anti-mask and anti-lockdown
safety and online for social connection, Facebook campaigning, and baseless, outlandish conspiracy
activity relating to the baseless QAnon conspiracy theories about the origins of COVID-19 were all
theory experienced an unprecedented surge. Public absorbed into broader QAnon narratives during
posts with terms related to QAnon, such as “Where 2020. Similarly, QAnon communities were
We Go One We Go All” (WWG1WGA) or “PedoGate” hijacking and injecting conspiracy theories into the
appeared over 1,000 times a day on average on the mainstream discussions about non-governmental
platform and were shared across a wide network of organisations (NGOs) and campaigns seeking to
pages, groups and profiles of influential individuals. protect children, such as the Save the Children
In this research, produced in partnership between movement. This was to advance their claims about
ISD and NewsGuard, we sought to examine this elite-orchestrated child sex-trafficking rings moving
surge and identify the dominant narratives and from online spaces to offline events and protests.
domains among QAnon communities on Facebook.
Websites that publish disinformation were
The resulting report, based on analysis of over frequently shared among QAnon communities on
200,000 Facebook posts across five months of Facebook, serving as a crucial link in the support
2020, found that the conspiracy experienced structure for the conspiracy. This includes sites
month-on-month growth on Facebook throughout focused on QAnon themes as well as sites that
the year with engagement around QAnon deal with more general types of political or cultural
almost doubling between April and August. misinformation, both in the US and beyond.
Influential individual Facebook users, termed This report also captures the recent international
“superspreaders” in this report, were found to be spread of QAnon, as introductory materials used
a key link in the conspiracy chain, responsible for to indoctrinate people to QAnon are now being
sharing and promoting introductory materials translated and shared among communities in non-
among new followers, posting videos and instilling a anglophone countries too.
do-it-yourself ethos that empowered recruits to do
their research, consume more QAnon content and,
in turn, become further indoctrinated.
QAnon and Facebook
What does this all mean?
Firstly, Facebook’s 6 October ban of QAnon content This report also includes recommendations for
came too late. Though pages and groups with tens how media organisations and government bodies
of thousands of members that promoted QAnon can play a role in countering dangerous conspiracy
were removed from the platform after the ban, the theories. This research shows how QAnon followers
conspiracy had by then already enjoyed a three- cite mainstream reports in ways that support
year run on Facebook with little to stop it. What their conspiratorial beliefs. At all times, media
started as a conspiracy on fringe forums of the organisations must not lend credibility or validity to
web has now gone global and indoctrinated many, QAnon and remind their audiences that there is no
with platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter evidence to support the wide number of conspiracy
playing a crucial role in facilitating its spread. As theories wrapped up in this belief system.
this report shows, even with sweeping actions and
policy changes, it is very difficult to completely For governments, they must respect freedoms
eradicate the conspiracy on these platforms. of expression and privacy, but also protect their
citizens by proactively monitoring for the spread
Even after the ban, personal Facebook profiles – of potentially harmful contents on public social
many with large followings – are continuing to media channels and designating disinformation
discuss and promote the conspiracy. Facebook, narratives and groups responsible as threats when
and similar platforms, must consider content appropriate. This will empower national institutions,
moderation policies that include activity from social platforms and civil society groups to monitor,
individual users who spread harmful conspiracies flag and tackle harmful ideologies in more effective
like QAnon. Platforms should also consider ways as they arise.
deprioritising QAnon content in recommendation
algorithms, in similar ways to their response
to other public health concerns like COVID-19
disinformation. Greater transparency from
platforms in their responses to problematic content
and communities could in fact empower research
institutions and civil society groups to find solutions
to common-interest problems.
QAnon and Facebook
Glossary
Superspreader Established misinformers
In previous research regarding COVID-19 In the context of this research, established
misinformation, NewsGuard defined superspreader misinformed refer to websites that predate
Facebook pages as pages that have “large QAnon and that are known to have published
followings of more than 100,000 likes” and misinformation on a wide range of subjects. The
that have published or shared false content websites are both popular among and outside
about COVID-19.1 In the context of this research QAnon communities. Examples include right-wing
paper, we define superspreaders as personal media sites The Gateway Pundit and The Federalist.
Facebook profiles that are responsible for the
mass proliferation of disinformation or activity Fringe misinformers
that promotes the QAnon conspiracy and whose In the context of this research, fringe misinformers
content has been viewed at least 100,000 times. refer to websites that focus almost exclusively on
covering or promoting disinformation associated
Redpilling with the QAnon conspiracy and do not seem to
Taking the red pill is a phrase that originated from receive significant social media engagement
the 1999 science fiction film, The Matrix, that outside of the QAnon community. Examples
refers to a person choosing to become aware of include Humorous Mathematics and QNation.us.
perceived unpleasant but necessary truths in
the world, instead of taking the blue pill, which
instead describes choosing to remain living in
blissful ignorance about the world.2 The phrase has
been adopted by far-right or misogynistic online
communities in recent years and is now part of the
vernacular among conspiracy communities like
QAnon. It is used to describe the process of how an
uninitiated person becomes educated about the
central belief system of a particular conspiracy. 3
QAnon redpilling takes the form of online users
becoming exposed to videos and fringe sites that
provide material to support the claim that an elite
group of child-trafficking paedophiles rule the
world and that outgoing President Trump has a
secret plan in place to bring this group to justice.
QAnon and Facebook
Introduction
In the summer of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic This report presents findings from narrative and
spread across the world and forced many indoors domain analyses of those posts, covering the period 1
for safety and online for social connection, April-11 September 2020. This time, which coincided
Facebook activity related to the baseless QAnon with the initial surge of the COVID-19 pandemic in the
conspiracy experienced an unprecedented surge. US, saw a widely documented surge in activity among
Public posts with terms related to the QAnon followers of the conspiracy theory and interactions
conspiracy theory, such as “Where We Go One We with content supportive of it online.9 10 11
Go All” or “PedoGate” appeared over 1,000 times
a day on average and were shared across a wide For this study, we solely focused on analysing QAnon
network of pages, groups and profiles of activity on Facebook due to the platform’s size and
influential individuals. reach, as well as its frequent use for sharing links to
news and other third-party websites. We analysed
In this report, produced in a partnership between posts discussing QAnon topics made by page
the ISD and NewsGuard, we sought to understand administrators and public group members active on
how QAnon followers have used Facebook to share the platform.12 Specifically, we examined trends in
information about the conspiracy through a network topics discussed, domains shared, spikes in volume
of dozens of pages, groups and profiles of influential and other notable metrics.
individuals. We conducted a qualitative and
quantitative analysis of over 200,000 posts on the The report presents a breakdown of key features of
platform during five months in 2020. This empirical the QAnon ecosystem on Facebook during the period,
approach allowed us to study the conspiracy theory and shows the convergence of QAnon misinformation
through a broad lens and understand significant with other online communities and a significant uptick
narratives and trends that emerged across a in the dissemination of wider conspiracies online – as
comprehensive set of Facebook posts. reported in previous research from ISD.13
What is QAnon?
QAnon is a wide-ranging conspiracy theory that claims that an elite group of child-trafficking paedophiles have
been ruling the world for many decades and that outgoing President Trump has a secret plan in place to bring
this group to justice.4 QAnon, which was preceded by similar conspiracies like Pizzagate, started in October
2017, when a user calling themselves Q claimed to have high-level security clearance and started posting a
series of cryptic messages about Trump’s supposed battle against corrupt elites on the politically incorrect
forum on 4chan – an anonymous imageboard website known for hosting extremist and violent content.5
Q later moved to 8chan, a more extreme site with even fewer content moderation rules, before the site
was taken down in 2019 after it was linked to a spate of mass shootings in the US. 6 It was relaunched as
8kun and it remains the home of Q, who posts messages (known as QDrops), that are quickly shared on
mainstream platforms where supporters attempt to decode their supposed meaning and link them to
ongoing political events in the US. These messages always reinforce the central belief that Trump will
someday expose the deep state and bring corrupt elites to justice. In the span of a few months in 2020,
as misinformation about the pandemic converged with falsehoods related to QAnon, awareness of QAnon
among the US public “increased dramatically” and the conspiracy theory grew more popular than ever.7 8
QAnon and Facebook
Following our data collection, on 6 October 2020

Facebook announced a ban on QAnon content QAnon’s extremist
across Facebook and Instagram, and YouTube
announced a similar ban on QAnon content on 15 ideology and false
October. However, it was clear from our analysis
that by the time of the ban, the conspiracy theory
claims reached
had already established a significant following with
the potential to shape real-world events.
millions at a time
It is significant to note that Facebook and YouTube’s
of great uncertainty,
bans came after content related to the conspiracy
had surged and merged with misinformation
while many were
about the COVID-19 pandemic. QAnon’s extremist
ideology and false claims reached millions at a time
vulnerable to a
of great uncertainty, while many were vulnerable to deadly viral disease
a deadly viral disease and the viral misinformation
that accompanied it. and the viral
Throughout this report, we have noted where misinformation that
pages or groups on Facebook and videos on
YouTube have been removed by the platforms. accompanied it.
We also note the many instances where influential
posts related to QAnon remained live on the platform
in the weeks following the 6 October ban of QAnon
content, despite the social media giant’s stated policy.
In our conclusion, we discuss the implications of the
conspiracy theory’s yearly growth on the platform,
as well as what this belated ban might mean for the
future of the QAnon conspiracy.
What is a Superspreader?
In previous research regarding COVID-19
misinformation, NewsGuard defined superspreader
Facebook pages as pages that have “large
followings of more than 100,000 likes” and 100,000
that have published or shared false content about
COVID-19.14 In the context of this research paper, we
times
define superspreaders as personal Facebook profiles
that are responsible for the mass proliferation of
disinformation or activity that promotes the QAnon
conspiracy and whose content has been viewed
at least 100,000 times.
QAnon and Facebook
Key findings
In summary:
• QAnon and associated conspiracies surged • Analysts identified numerous key narratives
since April 2020. in QAnon discussions, including:
– The average number of Facebook posts – The claim that “Pizzagate is real,” i.e.
related to QAnon captured in our data set asserting the veracity of the theory that
increased month-on-month from April to Democratic party officials, celebrities and
September. The most notable increase took elites are involved in a global child sex-
place in the summer, when the average trafficking ring.
number of QAnon-related posts per day on – The mass proliferation of false claims,
Facebook rose from 1,193 in June to 1,602 in misinformation and disinformation
July and higher still in August with 1,772. about COVID-19, ranging from anti-
– Engagement around QAnon-related content mask campaigning to the belief that the
increased significantly on Facebook over the coronavirus was released intentionally
summer. 31% of the most widely shared posts – ultimately leading to a convergence of
within our data set were made in August COVID-19 misinformation with core QAnon
versus 22% in July and 15% in June. assertions.
– At least 10 videos identified in this analysis – The appropriation of language and themes
that promote key messages of the QAnon traditionally used to raise public awareness of
conspiracy posted on personal Facebook child trafficking, such as the campaign work
profiles (superspreaders), have received of Save the Children and other international
over one million views on the platform. NGOs. This was done to advance child sex-
Dozens more also have tens or hundreds of trafficking narratives popular within the
thousands of views. QAnon conspiracy.
– Humorous Mathematics, one of the websites – The promotion of the “Obamagate” or
that was shared the most frequently in our “Spygate” conspiracy, a complex and
data set of Facebook posts, was created unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that
in April 2020 following the onset of the broadly alleges that former US president
pandemic and grew in popularity over the last Barack Obama and other members of his
several months. Its top-performing articles administration plotted to undermine Donald
were from July and August 2020, the most Trump’s presidency by illegally spying on and
active period of posting in the data. entrapping members of the Trump campaign.
Facebook’s QAnon ban came too late. – References to Adrenochrome, the chemical
Pages/groups spreading the conspiracy compound QAnon followers falsely believe is
were removed en masse, but superspreader harvested from children by members of the
personal profiles continue to promote “cabal” and used to stay young or healthy.
disinformation on the platform.
QAnon and Facebook
• Although primarily driven from the US, this • The top Red-rated websites in the
research shows the extent to which the data included popular purveyors of
QAnon conspiracy has grown internationally. misinformation as well as obscure websites.
– News websites in at least 15 different These include:
languages appear in the data. English was – Established misinformers: Sites like
by far the biggest proportion followed by TheFederalist.com and TheGatewayPundit.
German, Italian and French. com, which predate the conspiracy
– Facebook posts captured in the data theory and are known to have published
identified a Spanish-language QAnon misinformation on a wide range of subjects
superspreader. appeared frequently in posts in this data set,
but are also popular outside of the QAnon
– A French website specifically covering QAnon
community. According to media intelligence
ranks among the top 15 news sources
company NewsWhip, TheFederalist.com
that appeared most frequently in the data,
received more interactions (likes, comments,
with links in 161 posts that were shared a
and shares) on major social media platforms
cumulative 1,159 times.
from 11 June to 11 September 2020 than
– Introductory materials used to brief or
major news sites like WSJ.com, TheAtlantic.
indoctrinate people who are new to QAnon
com and Politico.com. TheGateWayPundit.
on the basics of the theory (known as
com received more interactions during that
“redpilling” – see glossary) are now being
same period than sites like TheGuardian.com
translated/subtitled and shared among non-
and DenverPost.com.
anglophone communities.
– Fringe misinformers: Other less familiar sites
– Three of the top 10 most-active communities
like HumorousMathematics.com and QNation.
posting QAnon content captured in our data
us also appear frequently in the data but are
were German-language Facebook groups.
more focused on covering QAnon and do
not seem to receive significant social media
• QAnon followers frequently reference
engagement outside the QAnon community.
and share news sources that traffic in
While some sources of misinformation shared
disinformation.
among QAnon followers reflect popularity
– Of the news sites that appeared in 10 or
seen elsewhere on Facebook, other sources
more posts in this data set, sites found by
of misinformation appear confined within the
NewsGuard to be generally unreliable (Red-
conspiracy’s community.
rated) were linked to in 6,669 posts with a
cumulative 185,784 shares, while sites found
by NewsGuard to be generally reliable (Green-
rated) were linked to in only 3,553 posts with
a cumulative 56,203 shares.15
QAnon and Facebook
Methodology Keyword collection

We addressed the following research questions:
We began by identifying a comprehensive list
of keywords to capture QAnon discourse across
• What domains are most commonly shared
Facebook. Selection of these keywords and
among QAnon followers on social media? terms was informed by previous research by ISD,
– What sources do QAnon followers rely on for in combination with insights from our regular
their news? monitoring of the conspiracy theory online and in
– What were the most popular news stories collaboration with NewsGuard. We aimed to only
include terms frequently used by QAnon advocates
shared by QAnon followers on Facebook?
and those supportive of the conspiracy. In choosing
– What languages and countries were these terms, we also avoided more generalist
represented in the domain data? keywords associated with the conspiracy, to limit the
– What types of non-news sites were frequently number of false positives (posts that mentioned the
conspiracy theory but were not posted by QAnon
shared by QAnon followers on Facebook, and
followers, such as posts fact-checking the theory or
what can be gathered from those? expressing concern about its rise).
• What and who are the dominant narratives, We gathered an initial data set using the keyword
topics and actors among QAnon list and qualitatively assessed it for precision
communities on Facebook? and recall. Our researchers then extracted and
– What are the primary narratives in online manually reviewed a random sample of this initial
discussion around QAnon? data set to ensure the keyword list was returning
only posts that would be of interest in this research.
– What are the most-shared pieces of content This process resulted in us removing the term
among QAnon followers? “Spygate” from our keyword lists, as many posts
– Who are the primary influencers among containing only this keyword could not be directly
QAnon followers online? tied to QAnon. Although the Spygate conspiracy
theory (explained in the key themes section of this
– How is QAnon content shared among and report) was popular among QAnon followers, it has
between online communities? also circulated in broader circles of conservatives
who do not believe in QAnon. We also removed the
To answer our research questions, we adopted a term “moloch” from our keyword list. The term
mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative is used by QAnon followers to refer to the act of
analysis of large data sets with quantitative analysis sacrificing children. However, we removed the term
of content to identify and analyse QAnon discourse because it is also the name of a hip-hop artist and
on Facebook. posts mentioning the keyword could therefore not
be directly tied to QAnon.
Data collection
Following this keyword review, we performed a final
Data was collected using the CrowdTangle collection of data, which serves as the basis for
API, which provides data on posts made by analysis in this report. The full keyword list can be
administrators in public pages and groups across found in appendix A.
Facebook. This data includes: the text of the post,
the group where it was shared, time and date of The size of the final data set is shown in table 1 below.
publication, any associated links or media, the
number of comments, shares and reactions, and Final data set
other metadata. Data was gathered from 1 April Unique posts 210,505
2020 to 11 September 2020 and collected on 12 Unique accounts 27,404
September 2020 –before the Facebook ban on
QAnon content. All data was collected using a
Table 1. Number of unique posts containing QAnon keywords
keyword-based query of this API.
and number of unique accounts mentioning QAnon keywords.
QAnon and Facebook
Narrative analysis
The final list of unique URLs and domains served
ISD analysed the full data set using a bespoke as the basis for the domain analysis conducted by
analytical platform developed by ISD and our NewsGuard.
technology partner. Analytical workflows in this
platform have been developed specifically to Domain analysis
analyse social media data, particularly about hate,
extremism, conspiracy theories and polarisation. NewsGuard analysed the websites and, in particular,
Individual posts are processed based on the data the news websites most referenced by QAnon followers
drawn from the API, including by organising posts in their posts on Facebook. To carry out the domain
by linguistic similarity, aggregating posts containing analysis, we limited our focus to websites that appeared
the same URL, and tracking the number of posts in 10 or more Facebook posts in the data set, comprising
from individual pages or groups. 396 domains that account for 98% of all links in the data
set. We also combined duplicate domains that represent
Using this analytical platform, we identified five the same website shared in different formats where
characteristics of the data set: relevant (e.g. combining the data from YouTube.com, the
main URL for YouTube, with that of m.youtube.com, the
• Widely repeated messages, or text that occurred mobile URL for the site).
multiple times in unique posts within the data set.
Because we were most interested in determining how
• Widely shared messages, or posts that were most
QAnon followers reference and share news articles
shared via platform functionality (i.e., clicking
– both reliable and unreliable – much of our domain
“share” on the Facebook platform). analysis focuses on websites that publish or purport
• Post volume over time. to publish news and opinion, rather than other types
• Most prolific accounts, or those accounts that most of sites that are not focused on news content, like
frequently posted using one or more keywords. Reddit.com and YouTube.com. The bulk of this analysis
was powered by NewsGuard’s ratings and “Nutrition
• Most frequently shared external URLs.
Label” reviews of news websites, which are produced
by trained journalists who assess websites using nine
We then manually assessed these lists to better
apolitical criteria of journalistic practice.16 NewsGuard
understand the broader trends in the data set. Widely
rates news and information websites in the US, UK,
repeated and shared messages were assessed to
France, Germany, and Italy. It prioritises rating websites
understand the main narratives within the data set.
that receive high levels of engagement on social media
Post volume over time was used to identify peaks in
(shares, likes, comments, etc.), based on data from
activity, and the most prolific account list was used to
media intelligence firm NewsWhip.
identify key influencers. After identifying these top-
level trends, researchers selected specific narratives or
Of the 302 news websites that appeared in at least
periods of particular interest for further investigation.
10 Facebook posts in our data set, 181 were rated by
NewsGuard, 29 had not been rated because they serve
Bespoke keyword lists were developed to extract
countries in which NewsGuard does not currently
subsets of posts for further manual analysis; and posts
operate and the remaining 92 were not rated because
from a specific day or days were analysed separately.
they did not receive sufficient levels of social media
For example, when outgoing President Trump
engagement to qualify for NewsGuard’s threshold
commented on QAnon publicly for the first time on
for warranting a review. The NewsGuard ratings cited
18 August, we extracted all posts made in the days
in this report were current as of 28 October 2020.
following for closer analysis. In these instances, the
NewsGuard regularly updates its ratings of news
subsets were processed using the same analytical
websites and some of the ratings cited in this report
workflows as above and similar summary tables were
may later change.
produced for manual assessment.
For websites in the data set that had not been
Finally, the list of most frequently shared external URLs
rated by NewsGuard, we classified the language
was processed to identify the domains that were most
(English, Spanish, etc.) and category (news, platform,
frequently cited. The number of times each URL was
e-commerce, etc.) of each site, enabling us to observe
shared via Facebook’s share function was tabulated
other trends in the data such as the presence of at
and this figure was aggregated at the domain level.
least 80 different platforms (discussed below).
QAnon and Facebook
Overall trends
Volume over time
ISD tracked a significant increase in discussion around QAnon and associated conspiracies since April,
when our analysis started. The average number of Facebook posts related to QAnon captured in our data
set increased every month from April to September.
Month Average posts per day Month-on-month increase

April 992 n/a
May 1,174 182
June 1,192 18
July 1,602 410
August 1,772 170
Table 2: Table representing the month-on-month increase of QAnon-related posts on Facebook per day captured in our data set.
The greatest increase in activity month-on-month occurred between June and July when the average
number of posts per day rose from 1,192 to 1,602. Between April and August, the average number of
Facebook posts per day almost doubled, rising from 992 to 1,772, or a 178% increase. This spike in volume
as the summer progressed is visible in figure 1. On 19 August, Facebook announced it had taken down or
restricted more than 10,000 groups, pages and Instagram accounts associated with QAnon.17 Our analysis
tracked a drop in QAnon activity from this date onwards.
2,500
2,000
Volume
1,500
1,000
500
0
1 Apr 2020 1 May 2020 1 June2020 1 July 2020 1 Aug 2020 1 Sept 2020
Date
Figure 1: Graph representing the number of QAnon-related posts on Facebook per day captured in our data set. The red circle
signals a spike in QAnon discussion on Facebook from August 18 that corresponds with the date Trump made his first public
comments about the conspiracy.
Notable peaks in volume: Outgoing President Trump comments on QAnon for the first time
ISD analysed the data set for spikes in QAnon communities around several key incidents. One of these was
the activity on and around 18 August (seen circled in red in the figure 1), when Trump made his first public
comments about the conspiracy during a press conference in the White House. In response to a reporter’s
question about the conspiracy, Trump said he does not “know much about the movement other than I
understand they like me very much, which I appreciate” and added that “if I can help save the world from
problems, I’m willing to do it”, referring to the belief among QAnon supporters that he is at the forefront of
a fight against corrupt global elites.18
QAnon and Facebook
In the days following these comments, there was a spike in QAnon discussion on Facebook, leading to two
consecutive days with higher-than-average posts (19 August: 1,883 posts, 20 August: 1,874 posts) where
QAnon supporters celebrated Trump’s remarks and shared videos from the press conference.
Highly engaged posts in this timeframe included a Facebook video, viewed 66,000 times, which was
posted by highly prominent QAnon activist Liz Crokin (Crokin’s profile was removed from Facebook on 20
October). A video posted to her profile stated: “President Trump discusses QAnon for the first time! He says
Q followers love him & the country & the movement is gaining momentum. BOOM! Thank you Q”.
Another video, posted on YouTube by a Canadian QAnon follower and shared 242 times on Facebook,
praised Trump’s comments and said “#DonaldTrump pretty much confirmed that he’s aware of #QAnon,
he didn’t condemn it as a conspiracy, he actually acknowledged the #Patriots that make up the
#WWG1WGA movement”. The video was removed following YouTube’s 15 October policy change to ban
QAnon content.
August surge
Engagement around QAnon-related content increased on Facebook over the summer. Of the most widely
shared posts, 31% were made in August, versus 22% in July, and 15% in June.
This can at least partly be attributed to a communication strategy adopted by members of the QAnon
community over the summer to hijack hashtags associated with the Save the Children movement, which
is explained in detail in the key themes section below. Members of the QAnon community were behind
numerous rallies protesting child sex trafficking, which were held across the US throughout August and led
to a nationwide surge in the use of terms linked to QAnon.19 Posts captured in our data set that featured
terms such as “SaveTheChildren” and “SaveOurChildren” were shared a collective 132,000 times, with
activity around the terms highest in August, as seen in the graph below.
700
600
500
Volume
400
300
200
100
0
14 r 2 0
21 pr 2 0
28 pr 2 0
5 r 20 0
12 ay 2 20
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ay 0
Ju 20
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7 r 20
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M 0
1 20
8 20
13 l 20
20 l 20
27 l 20
3 l 20
20
15 n 2
n
n
a
M
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31
Date
Figure 2: Graph representing the use of #SaveTheChildren among QAnon communities April-September,
reflecting the growth of the hashtag from mid-July onwards.
QAnon and Facebook
The most widely shared post captured in our data set was posted in August. The post has been shared on
Facebook 53,000 times and features a video that has been viewed two million times.20 The video, posted
on a page on 1 August, shows a crowd of protesters demonstrating outside the Los Angeles offices of CNN,
chanting “save the children” and “where we go one, we go all”. The latter statement is a central motto of
the QAnon movement, which followers claim appeared on a bell on a yacht belonging to former president
John F. Kennedy, Jr., but which comes from a 1996 Ridley Scott film called White Squall.21 The Facebook
post also used both slogans as hashtags.
Figure 3: Screenshot from a video of a “Save the Children”/QAnon protest outside CNN’s Los Angeles office, uploaded in August.
A placard in the background claims “Hollywood and the mainstream media are run by pedophiles”.
QAnon and Facebook
Key themes
Throughout our data set, several key themes were evident. The five major themes highlighted by the data
were QAnon redpilling, COVID-19, the “Save the Children” campaign, the Obamagate conspiracy theory
and adrenochrome.
QAnon redpilling
Videos and other content that serve as introductory materials for new members of the QAnon community
ranked highly in the most widely shared posts in our data set. “The Fall of Cabal”, a video produced by
Dutch filmmaker and conspiracy theorist Janet Ossebaard, is one of the most popular documentaries
among QAnon followers. Direct links to versions of the documentary were shared in our data set in at least
20 posts. Copies of the video are hosted on platforms like BitChute, which is a video hosting platform with
few content moderation rules that provides a haven for a significant amount of extremist material.22 23
It is also hosted on YouTube, though it appears videos featuring the documentary on this platform were
removed after the 15 October ban.
The documentary was shared on Facebook on 26 July by a user who told people: “This is a great
introduction into the world that you thought you knew. Make sure you watch it’s [sic] entirety. This is one
of the biggest red pills you will take!” The post, which was shared 331 times in our data set, uses emotive
language that urges people to interact with QAnon-related content, a common trait seen in content shared
within this movement.
Figure 4: Screenshot from Facebook upload of “Fall of the Cabal” documentary, posted 26 July.
A link to a Google Drive folder entitled “Resources for Redpilling, Awakening, Healing –
The First Steps” was shared 61 times in our data set. The link was posted by a self-identified QAnon follower
underneath a video that featured him speaking about a movie he produced that “exposed Hollywood
pedophiia [sic]”. This received 140,000 views.
The Google Drive folder features a document including a list of news articles about Jeffrey Epstein,
Harvey Weinstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Bill Gates from mainstream news organisations like the New
York Times, Buzzfeed and the Daily Beast (all Green-rated by NewsGuard).24 25 26 While there is no framing
QAnon and Facebook
or caption alongside the articles in the folder, they all feature stories that highlighted links between
Epstein or Maxwell and celebrities, politicians or entrepreneurs. It is possible, based on knowledge of
QAnon narratives more broadly, that they were included here to support the claim that elites were closely
connected to Epstein, a convicted sex offender who was charged with a range of sex-trafficking crimes in
2019. The citation of mainstream news sources to justify QAnon beliefs is discussed further in the domain
assessments.
The folder also features numerous links to videos about alleged paedophiles and child sex-trafficking
survivors, as well as QAnon documentaries like “Out of the Shadows”, all uploaded on YouTube (and still
available after the 15 October ban) and Bitchute.
COVID-19
Conspiracies regarding COVID-19 are highly popular in the QAnon community. These take on many forms,
but most align with the belief that COVID-19 was a planned event for population control or enforcing mass
vaccinations across the world. Other conspiracy narratives include the assertion that, while the virus may
be real, it has been seized upon by the mainstream media and governments worldwide to further their
goals and alter society to their benefit.
This theme’s prominence was evident throughout our data set. A popular Facebook post, shared 731
times was captioned: “Please everyone, watch this video, this will hopefully make you understand what is
going on with our world and way of life. I can’t stress this enough, you need to watch this video.” The post
contained a video, posted by a user who can be regarded as a QAnon superspreader. This video has since
been viewed 1.3 million times to date and remains on the platform, despite the QAnon ban on Facebook.
The video was originally released by Remnant TV, an online pro-Trump “Catholic news, discussion and
information” YouTube channel.27 The footage was presented as a short-form documentary and claimed
that people like George Soros, Al Gore, and the secretary-general of the United Nations “are only too eager
to admit that COVID-19 offers them a rare opportunity” to reset the world economy, enact population
control, enforce climate change regulation and “transform every aspect of life as we know it”. The only
thing standing in the way of this, according to the video, is Trump.
The video highlights how conspiracy theory supporters have merged various beliefs in recent months,
using QAnon terminology to promote COVID-19 disinformation that claims the virus is part of a plot to
remove Trump from office.
QAnon and Facebook
Figure 5: Screenshot from Remnant TV video “The Great Reset”, posted 6 August.
Save The Children
Pizzagate is a conspiracy theory that emerged during the 2016 US presidential election that claimed that
senior figures in the Democratic Party, including Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager John Podesta,
were involved in a child sex-trafficking ring.28 As the QAnon conspiracy gained momentum during 2017-
2018, supporters and influencers leaned heavily on many themes popularised by Pizzagate, most notably
the notion that members of an elite group were exploiting and trafficking children.29
During summer 2020, QAnon supporters “hijacked” the Save The Children movement by linking one of the
core tenets of the conspiracy – child trafficking perpetrated by global elites – to legitimatise campaigns
that seek to raise awareness of actual child sex-trafficking. 30 Members of the conspiracy community were
behind numerous rallies against child sex-trafficking held across the US organised from July onwards and
co-opted hashtags used by organisations like Save The Children. 31 The move has been described as a
“growth strategy” that “involves piggybacking on the anti-human trafficking movement”. 32 As a result,
the QAnon community has found new followers in people who may not know much about QAnon, but do
agree that child exploitation is bad and will advocate online for increased awareness about child trafficking.
One post that captures how Save the Children has been used to spread QAnon conspiracies can be seen
on the Facebook page for Marcela Iglesias, an Argentinian glamour model now living in the US. Iglesias
has a combined following of over 300,000 people on her verified Facebook and Instagram profiles. Before
August, no posts on her accounts contained Save the Children or other QAnon-related content.
However, on 10 August, Iglesias posted an image on both accounts featuring text that read: “The fact
that no news channel talks about child trafficking should concern everyone. #SaveTheChildren”. 33 34
The posts featured additional hashtags like #wwg1wga, #qdrops and #pedowood. The accompanying
hashtags suggest that her interest in Save the Children emerged through QAnon-related content, not the
established Save the Children organisation or campaign.
Activity like this demonstrates how QAnon content has been picked up in recent months by influential
online users who command large followings and who previously never promoted the conspiracy. Posts
like Iglesias’ substantially increase the visibility of QAnon-adjacent content and have the potential to pull
in people into the QAnon conspiracy who may believe they are taking an uncontroversial position against
child sex trafficking.
QAnon and Facebook
Connecting elites to sex-trafficking crimes
A trend popular among QAnon followers who co-opt the Save the Children movement is the act of
highlighting cases of people who have been credibly accused of or charged with exploiting children.
Take the example of Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender and financier who had connections with
many politicians, celebrities and media professionals. 35 Epstein was arrested and charged with a range
of sex-trafficking crimes in July 2019, but died by suicide in a New York prison one month later in August
2019. Epstein’s crimes fit the narrative espoused by QAnon followers that corrupt and powerful people
were taking advantage of young children and escaping justice. 36
Over time, other high-profile individuals who travelled or socialised with Epstein have been pulled into
the evolving conspiracy as a result. By their association with Epstein, people like former US president
Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks have become central figures in Pizzagate/QAnon/Save the
Children conspiracy narratives. 37
The data shows that widely shared posts related to Epstein promoted claims that he hosted parties where
elites would perform rituals on children to produce adrenochrome, a supposed drug that elites would then
later consume. This is described in further detail later in this section.
Some of the most widely shared posts mentioning Epstein within our data set are shown in the table below.
Post Title Group/Page: Shares

EPSTEIN FILES: THE HORRIFIC TRUTH ABOUT
ADRENOCHROME!!! ðŸ›‘SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE UPDATES!
[sic] DoeNut [Group] [Removed] 35,965
#epsteindidntkillhimself #PizzaGate and The Pedophilia Tupac’s Killuminati Soldiers of

Agenda [sic] Truth [Group] 10,275
STILL A CONSPIRACY? ðŸ‘ long read but this will help you
navigate your searching for those curious minds.. Prince
Andrew is accused for pedophilia and was extremely close
with Jeffrey Epstein. (A convicted pedophile) [sic] Gator Queen Liz [Page] 2,168
This is the effects of Satanic Ritual Abuse [SRA] and

Adrenochrome harvesting on a child. When a child is
trafficked by the Luciferian elite, they are then sexually
abused and terrorised to the point that their blood
becomes highly adrenalised… partaking in Epstein-styled
parties that secretly perform SRA on trafficked children The Truth and Mystery Behind
and teens. this World [Page] 1,096
PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW! Prince Andrew was close with

Jeffrey Epstein convicted paedophile and accused of
the same. Research Epstein Island if you have a strong Action Against Predators
stomach. [Page] 910
Table 3: Widely shared Facebook posts mentioning Jeffrey Epstein captured in our data set.
QAnon and Facebook
Obamagate/Spygate
Obamagate, also referred to as Spygate, is a complex and unsubstantiated narrative that alleges that
former US president Barack Obama and other members of his administration plotted to undermine
Trump’s presidency. In particular, through alleged illegal actions taken during the FBI investigation into
Russian interference in the 2016 election and links between Russia and the Trump campaign. 38 39 Justice
Department investigations have indeed uncovered issues about the Russia investigation, including in the
investigation of former Trump aide Carter Page, which included an FBI lawyer pleading guilty to doctoring
an email to support a wiretapping request.40 However, the Obamagate conspiracy theory goes beyond
these revelations, which were not found to be caused by political bias, and involves false claims that a “spy”
was embedded within the Trump campaign as an informant or that the Obama administration improperly
unmasked – or revealed – a previously anonymous individual from the Trump campaign in intelligence
reports. Such claims have been found to be untrue or unfounded by Justice Department investigations.41
It is important to note the differences between accurate reporting on abuses discovered by the Justice
Department Inspector General, such as in the investigation of Page, versus baseless allegations waged by
QAnon followers. Aware of this distinction, we took steps to exclude from our data set any Facebook posts
that mentioned only Spygate or Obamagate without mentioning another term central to QAnon, such as
WWG1WGA.
In December 2019, Michael Horowitz, Inspector General of the Justice Department, released a report
about key aspects of the FBI’s 2016 investigation.42 While the report did identify serious breaches, QAnon
followers embraced them as evidence of the deep-state cabal and cause for legal action beyond the
Justice Department’s recommendations.
According to The New York Times, “Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory also latched onto the
Horowitz report, predicting that it would set in motion indictments and mass arrests of the president’s
enemies”.43 In fact, Q posted about Spygate on 8kun two days before the report was released, with an
image of Obama and intelligence officials in his administration with text that read, “Spygate! Never has
a president left office to collude with others to impede the next sitting president of the United States of
America until Obama!” Q’s post included the caption “Ask yourself a very simple question, why? The ‘why’
will be (publicly) answered soon. Dark > Light”.44 However, while Horowitz’s report detailed significant
issues, it stated that “We also did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or
improper motivation influenced the FBI’s decision” to open the investigation or conduct surveillance of
Carter Page.
During the time of our data collection, the Justice Department dropped charges against former Trump
national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in the course of
the 2016 Russia investigation.45 QAnon followers celebrated this development with posts linking to various
news sources.
They also shared a significant amount of content related to an investigation into whether Flynn had been
improperly “unmasked” by Obama officials –meaning he had been personally identified in documents that
initially shielded his identity. In mid-October, the “unmasking” investigation concluded with no charges or
statements of wrongdoing.46
Obamagate aligns with QAnon followers’ general belief in a battle between Trump and the “deep state”.
Posts from Q have frequently referenced the Russia investigation and the events and figures central to
Obamagate.47
Moreover, it is likely that news articles related to Obamagate feature prominently in our data set due to
the timing in which it was collected. During this period, there were several legal developments related
to multiple investigations into the origins of the Russian interference and other related topics. These
constant updates provided ample fodder for QAnon followers to discuss and speculate about.
QAnon and Facebook
Facebook posts captured in our data set that mentioned Obamagate or Spygate alongside central QAnon
terms indicate how these have become catch-all terms used by QAnon followers to point to a supposed
grand conspiracy against Trump by “deep state elites”, smear critics of the president or push claims of
censorship by social platforms.
One Facebook video, shared seven times in our data set, featured footage of Julian Assange claiming that
“media lies” and uncritical coverage of “government propaganda” have fuelled wars in the past 50 years.
The post featured the hashtags #Spygate and #Obamagate, along with hashtags more directly tied to
QAnon, like #WWG1WGA and #WWG1WGAWorldwide. In another example, a QAnon superspreader whose
videos were shared 170 times in our data set posted one video in which they claimed in the accompanying
post that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had pledged allegiance to the “Zionist NWO”. Lightfoot did mention
the “new world order” in the video, but a Reuters fact check reported that the mayor’s comments were
taken out of context and she was not referring to “the conspiracy of a totalitarian world government”.48
The Facebook user’s post did not specify what they meant by “Zionist NWO”, but did include the
#Obamagate hashtag as well as #PizzagateIsReal and #SaveTheChildren.
Yet another Facebook post, since removed but previously shared at least 1,200 times, used #Obamagate
along with other central QAnon terms to falsely claim the hashtags are now being censored by social
platforms. A review carried out before the publishing of this report in November 2020 confirmed the
hashtags could still be found in posts published on the platform.
Figure 6: Post, from a since-removed Facebook page, claiming Facebook is censoring content around QAnon and
“Obamagate”.49
QAnon and Facebook
Adrenochrome
Adrenochrome is a chemical compound created by the oxidation of adrenaline.
The Daily Beast reports that adrenochrome is “an easy-to-come-by chemical compound, usually found
as a light pink solution”. 50 It further notes that it is “not approved for medical use by the Food and Drug
Administration – although researchers can buy 25 milligrams of it for just US$55 – but doctors in other
countries prescribe a version of it to treat blood clotting”. In popular culture, the compound is best known
for being mentioned in author Hunter S. Thompson’s 1971 novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. 51
QAnon followers claim that members of a “cabal” harvest the compound from children and use it to stay
young and healthy. Adrenochrome was a popular focus of links from e-commerce domains reviewed by
NewsGuard, discussed in the domain analysis section below.
Brian Freidberg, a senior researcher on the Technology and Social Change Project at Harvard’s Shorenstein
Center, wrote in a WIRED opinion column that early references to adrenochrome by QAnon followers were
explicitly connected to the “blood libel”, which, according to the Anti-Defamation League, is “a centuries-
old false allegation that Jews murder Christians – especially Christian children – to use their blood for ritual
purposes”. 52 53
We saw adrenochrome mentioned in a similar way in our data set. One post, shared 61 times before it was
removed, stated: “Adrenochrome is a very real drug that is mass-produced to the Global Elite with the
help of organisations like Planned Parenthood & people like Senator Kamala Harris”. Another post, shared
34 times by users in the data set, states “andrenochrome [sic] is the powerful hormonal precursor for
adrenaline” taken from children by “sick monsters”. The Facebook post linked out to a YouTube video titled
“Hoolywood [sic] Elite Pedophiles & Satanic Rituals” that is still live on that platform and features photos
of the Clintons, celebrities like Robert DeNiro and Lady Gaga and other figures regularly mentioned in
Pizzagate-related posts.
QAnon and Facebook
QAnon Superspreader
To understand what drove other peaks in volume during the period analysed, we examined notable spikes in the
number of posts per day in our data set, and in doing so, identified a QAnon superspreader.
One notable spike in activity in the overall data set occurred between 23 June and 30 June when the number of
posts per day rose from 1,219 to 2,347 by the end of the month. When we isolated posts around this period, one
Facebook profile appeared regularly throughout the data subset. In line with ISD policies around anonymity and
privacy, we are referring to them here as “the Superspreader profile”.54 The profile remained live on the platform
despite Facebook’s ban but was taken down on 13 November. The same user continues to post QAnon content on
a different personal profile not included in this research.
In a data set of 6,027 isolated posts captured between 27 June and 1 July, videos from the Superspreader profile
appeared 1,448 times, accounting for roughly 24% of total posts, all which linked to five videos uploaded by this
individual during this period. The videos amassed over 9.8 million views before the profile was removed. The videos
range in topic and are emblematic of how QAnon followers have co-opted other conspiracies and divisive incidents
into their larger conspiracy. One video, uploaded 28 June, was a popular conspiracy video called “COVID 911 –
Insurgency”, which claimed the COVID-19 pandemic is a hoax that was manufactured by “Deep State Democrats”
and the “mass media” to rig the presidential election and remove Trump from office. The upload received over
6.4 million views before the profile was removed. The post included the hashtags #WWG1WGA, #QAnonArmy and
#TheGreatAwakening. It was flagged by fact-checkers on the platform and given a “false rating” yet continued to
attract views.55
Figure 7: Screenshot from the opening scene of “COVID 911”. which received 6.4 million views on the Superspreader profile.
Another video uploaded by the Superspreader profile on 25 June was originally filmed by conspiracy
theorist and pro-Trump content creator Dionne Alexander. In it, Alexander warns Black Lives Matter
protesters to stay away from his neighbourhood. The video posted by the Superspreader was viewed 2.4
million times. The post also featured the hashtags #WWG1WGA, #QAnonArmy and #TheGreatAwakening.
Like that video, other videos posted on the superspreader profile did not explicitly promote QAnon, but did
show a police vehicle forcing its way through a group of protesters, who the user described as “terrorists”,
mocking the left-wing anti-fascist movement, or seeking to discredit members of the Democrat
party. Each video received a large number of views in the process and each post featured the hashtag
#WWG1WGA, #QAnonArmy and #TheGreatAwakening.
This Superspreader described themselves as a “digital soldier”, a term popular in the QAnon community
and regularly posted memes and statuses expressing support for the US president, downplaying the
severity of COVID-19 and promoting the Save The Children movement, as well as other QAnon-adjacent
conspiracies. To better understand their role as a superspreader, we’ve included tables below showing
a number of pages and groups where videos from this profile were shared, highlighting how this QAnon
content was predominantly shared among right-wing, pro-police and pro-Trump communities and from
individual accounts, which were not affected by the Facebook ban.
Notably, the number of shares presented below only represent the number of times the content was
shared from the listed page in the listed group. Analysis tools do not have access to user-level data,
meaning we don’t have full visibility over the number of times and locations where the content was shared,
and so these figures are likely underestimations.
QAnon and Facebook
1. Video: “COVID 911 – Insurgency”

Views on Facebook: 6.4 million
Page/Group Name: Date Shares

Liz Wheeler/Tipping Point on OAN Fans Group [Group] 29/6/20 17
Deplorable Deb Reporting from my Basket [Page] 30/6/20 91
Frontline America with Ben Bergquam [Page] 30/6/20 105
Friends Who ELECTED Donald J Trump [Group] 30/6/20 15
Team Trump 2020 [Group] 1/7/20 18
Table 4: Table showing a sample of the groups where this video, uploaded by the Superspreader profile, was shared.
2. Video: Dionne Alexander warns Black Lives Matter protesters to stay away from his neighbourhood

Andrew Cuomo Has To Go [Group] 29/6/20 20
Russian Speaking Americans for Trump [Group] [Removed] 30/6/20 63
Donald Trump ~ The Silent Majority [Group] 30/6/20 51
Sarah H. Sanders Supporters [Group] 30/6/20 42
Recall Gretchen Whitmer [Group] 1/7/20 86
3. Video: Police vehicle forces its way through a group of protesters, described as “terrorists” in post
Views on Facebook: 29,177

WORCESTER POLICE OFFICIALS UNION – IBPO LOCAL 504 [Group] 29/6/20 7
Deplorables for Trump [Group] [Removed] 30/6/20 2
Just Right Broadcasting Group [Group] 30/6/20 0
4. Video: Shows a person falling off a statue, used to mock anti-fascist protesters

The Rush Limbaugh Facebook Group [Group] 29/6/20 174
Bill O’Reilly fan group [Group] 29/6/20 139
Law Enforcement for Life! [Group] 29/6/20 60
Australians against radical Islam [Group] [Removed] 30/6/20 95
CANDACE OWENS FAN CLUB [Group] 30/6/20 42
5. Video: News clips used to discredit New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
Views on Facebook: 7,015

PensaScope [Group] [Removed] 29/6/20 10
Snowflake Central [Group] 30/6/20 0
QAnon and Facebook
Key actors
Across our data set, we conducted an analysis to identify the public figures mentioned most frequently by
QAnon followers on Facebook. Outgoing President Trump is the most-cited figure in our data, appearing in
almost five times more QAnon-related posts than other high-profile individuals.
Throughout April-September, Trump received 15,551 mentions in our data, compared to Barack Obama,
the next most-mentioned individual, who appeared in 3,350 posts. Other politicians featured in the data
included Hillary Clinton (1,923 posts), Joe Biden (1,160 posts), Bill Clinton (457 posts), Justin Trudeau (452
posts) and Adolf Hitler (272 posts).
Aside from politicians, other notable individuals among the most-mentioned figures were Jeffrey Epstein
(2,277 posts), George Soros (1,619 posts), former Trump advisor Gen. Michael Flynn (1,327 posts), Prince
Andrew (1,265 posts), Bill Gates (850 posts) and Tom Hanks (652 posts). See a sample of some of these
posts in figure 8.
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
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Figure 8: Chart showing mentions of public figures among QAnon community on Facebook between April and September.
QAnon and Facebook
Figure 9: Screenshot from video upload of Trump publicly commenting on QAnon for the first time. This clip was one of the most
popular Trump posts captured in our data set. The video and profile were removed from the platform on 20 October.
Figure 10: Screenshot from video upload promoting the claim that Bill Gates set up a charitable trust to benefit Jeffrey Epstein
and promoting the claim that the two were closely connected.
QAnon and Facebook
Most shared domains/links

To understand how QAnon followers consume, interpret and share news articles, we looked at the news
sources they most often included in Facebook posts – both the unreliable sites whose stories align with
QAnon’s anti-establishment world view and the credible, mainstream sources whose stories were often
shared by QAnon followers and spun to fit their narratives. We prioritised our domain analysis by looking at
the number of times a link from a website was posted on Facebook by a QAnon follower. We chose to focus
on this metric because it points to the sources most familiar to QAnon followers, or those that they sought
to amplify most often. To simplify the process, we limited our domain analysis to domains that appeared in
at least 10 Facebook posts in our data set. Finally, while news websites were our primary interest, we also
provide brief assessments of other types of websites at the end of this section, including platforms and
e-commerce sites.
Number of posts Number of shares of NewsGuard

containing links posts containing links NewsGuard score (out
Domains to the domain to the domain rating of 100)
thegatewaypundit.com 786 5742 Red 37.5
humorousmathematics.com 721 2117 Red 12.5
qnation.us 369 267 Red 20
uncoverdc.com 332 284 Red 27.5
thefederalist.com 303 9902 Red 12.5
conspiracydailyupdate.com 221 67 Red 7.5
trendingpolitics.com 219 11097 Red 57
foxnews.com 216 1962 Green 69.5
nytimes.com 199 3036 Green 100
theepochtimes.com 185 1577 Red 49.5
Table 9: The top 10 news sites in our data set based on the number of
Facebook posts that include links from the domain in the data.
QAnon and Facebook
Red-rated sites
Many of the news sites that appear most frequently in this data set – in 10 or more Facebook posts –
were sites rated Red by NewsGuard (meaning they severely violate basic journalistic standards, in many
cases publishing false claims related to QAnon and on other subjects). Of the 181 news websites rated by
NewsGuard that appeared in the data set, 90 were rated Red by NewsGuard. Links from Red-rated sites
appeared 6,669 times in the data set, while links from Green-rated sites (generally reliable) only appeared
3,553 times. Posts containing links to Red-rated news sites were far more popular than those containing
links to Green-rated sites, racking up 185,784 shares compared to 56,203 from Green-rated sites.
Number of posts containing Percentage of posts

links to sites rated by containing links to sites
NewsGuard domain rating NewsGuard rated by NewsGuard
Red-rated news source 6,669 65%
Green-rated news source 3,553 35%
All NewsGuard-rated news
10,222 100%
sources
Table 10: Posts containing links to NewsGuard Red-rated news sites vs. green-rated news sites.
Number of shares of posts Percentage of shares of

containing links to sites posts containing links to
NewsGuard domain rating rated by NewsGuard sites rated by NewsGuard
Red-rated news source 185,784 77%
Green-rated news source 56,203 23%
All NewsGuard-rated news
241,987 100%
source
Table 11: Shares of posts containing links to NewsGuard red-rated news sites vs. green-rated news sites.
We present here case studies of the top five Red-rated sources that appeared in the data the greatest
number of times. These sites exist in two categories: Established Misinformers, whose popularity on social
media exists outside the QAnon community and Fringe Misinformers, whose engagement appears to be
contained within it.
As ISD has previously reported, QAnon has grown into a “lurid meta-conspiracy connecting a range of
harmful narratives”, and its followers have incorporated other conspiracies into their central narrative
about the “deep state”. 56 Most news stories from Established Misinformers do not directly address
QAnon. Rather, the conspiracy’s followers use their false or distorted reporting to incorporate other anti-
establishment narratives into QAnon and its general world view, most prominently through misleading
coverage of the Obamagate narrative.
QAnon and Facebook
By contrast, Fringe Misinformers directly address QAnon and appear to play evangelising and record-
keeping roles within the conspiracy’s community. They share or interpret Q’s posts, host redpill material,
promote QAnon influencers and repeatedly encourage readers to conduct their own research – often with
resources or guides provided on the sites.
1. The Gateway Pundit (Established Misinformer)

Proceed with caution: This website severely CREDIBILITY TRANSPARENCY
violates basic journalistic standards
A partisan conervative website that Does not repeatedly Website discloses

regularly publishes hoaxes, conspiracy publish false content ownership and financing
theories, and unsubstantiated claims, Gathers and presents Clearly labels

including those related to the information responsibly advertising
COVID-19 pandemic. Reveals who’s in charge,
Regularly corrects or
including any possible
clarifies errors
conflicts of interest
786
Total number
of links in
the data set: Handles the differences The site provides
Score between news and names of content
37.5
opinion responsibly creators, along
Total number of shares of all with either contact
posts containing links in the or biographical
/100 data set: Avoids deceptive information
headlines
5,742
Figure 11: NewsGuard’s red rating for The Gateway Pundit.
The Gateway Pundit was the news source most commonly shared in Facebook posts we analysed.
The Gateway Pundit is a conservative website owned and operated by Jim Hoft, a St. Louis-based blogger.
It has been found by NewsGuard to repeatedly promote conspiracy theories and falsehoods, generally
related to US politics.
The website’s existence predates the QAnon conspiracy theory – it began in 2004 as Hoft’s blog before
he moved the site to its domain in 2011. Its popularity expands beyond circles of QAnon followers. On 11
September 2020, according to data from NewsWhip, the site ranked #121 in terms of online engagement
among all news sites in the US, ranking between mainstream news sources such as newyorker.com (#110)
and theguardian.com (#124). 57 In 2017, Trump’s administration granted The Gateway Pundit White House
press credentials.
In its Nutrition Label for the site, NewsGuard cites numerous false claims the site has advanced, including:
claims about the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, the whistleblower whose
complaint about Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s president led to an impeachment inquiry, the Clinton
family and the students who spoke out in favour of gun control after the February 2018 mass shooting at a
Parkland, Florida high school.
Yet, while the site’s falsehoods span a range of topics, the Gateway Pundit stories shared most frequently
by QAnon followers in our data set all dealt with Obamagate.
QAnon and Facebook
Number
of posts Total number of Story
containing shares of all posts publication
Headline the link containing the link Topic(s) date
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING! —
Testimony Reveals Deep State Spy
48 190 Obamagate 8/5/20
Joseph Mifsud Is Member of the Clinton
Foundation
“It’s Coming” — Reporter Adam
Housley on Obamagate Scandal:
44 336 Obamagate 26/5/20
Names to Watch… McMaster,
Rosenstein and John McCain
Brennan Lashes Out at President
Trump, Encourages Rioting and Looting Obamagate,
42 820 31/5/20
by Left-Wing Terrorists, ‘Necessary For Antifa
Real Change’
HUGE! Via John Solomon: Durham Has
Subpoenaed and Called in Witnesses 38 206 Obamagate 11/4/20
Before a DC Grand Jury
Stunning! Deep State Made Unmasking
Requests on Trump Family Members
35 175 Obamagate 14/5/20
the Morning of President Trump’s
Inauguration! (VIDEO)
Table 12: Top stories from TheGatewayPundit.com appearing in our data set, listed in order of Number of posts containing the link.
2. HumorousMathematics.com (Fringe Misinformer)

A website promoting debunked Does not repeatedly Website discloses

conspiracies and false science and publish false content ownership and financing
health claims, including support for Gathers and presents Clearly labels
QAnon, a belief that the earth is flat, and information responsibly advertising
misinformation related to COVID-19. Reveals who’s in charge,
clarifies errors
721
Total number
of links in
12.5
headlines
2,117
Figure 12: NewsGuard’s red rating for Humorous Mathematics.
QAnon and Facebook
Humorous Mathematics is a website and podcast run by two Dallas, Texas residents. It was created in
April 2020, seemingly in direct response to restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and grew
throughout our data collection period.
In the site’s first post explaining its founding, one of its co-founders wrote: “While we practice safe social
distancing and prepare ourselves for what could be the worst pandemic since the spanish flu, we are,
whether directly or indirectly, granted a copious amount of time to analyze our lives and the world around
us. 58 We are able to needle through the details of events that have occurred over the course of our entire
lives without the inconvenience of distraction or interruption.”
However, the post also contains references to ideas like “a comprehensive network of child traffickers” and
“satanic ritualistic murder and blood consumption”, suggesting that the site’s co-founders were already
versed in QAnon before the COVID-19 pandemic. Once they began creating content directly discussing the
conspiracy, the site quickly gained popularity with the QAnon community on Facebook.
The site publishes links to a substantial collection of QAnon resources, usually listed below each article,
including a “Red Pill Package” and a “Guide To Begin Researching & Exposing The Deep State”. Stories
treat the conspiracy’s main claims as fact, like the idea that John F. Kennedy, Jr. is still alive and that former
Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich leaked internal emails to WikiLeaks. 59 60 The site has also
published “The Fall of Cabal”, the introductory QAnon documentary, and NewsGuard identified articles
with misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. 61
Many articles on the site include a disclaimer that reiterates the theme of self-guided research common
within QAnon: “we do encourage the reader to do further research on their own and we hope that you will
share your findings with us. The mission for the truth requires a collective effort”.
The site displays advertisements from “partners”, such as men’s grooming company Duke Cannon and
has appears to earn revenue from a Patreon account, a crowdfunding platform through which readers can
subscribe to specific creators.
Humorous Mathematics does not get enough engagement across major social media platforms to fall into
NewsWhip’s rankings.
Number
of posts Total number Story
containing of shares of all posts publication
Headline the link containing the link Topic(s) date
QAnon Protestors Invade CNN In
Hollywood Over Elite Pedophilia & 120 920 QAnon protesters 1/8/20
Child Trafficking Exposure
What Is Adrenochrome? Follow
50 182 Adrenochrome 2/7/20
The White Rabbit...
PedoGate 2020 Part 3 By Mouthy
39 31 Paedophilia 25/8/20
Budda
Mid-2020 GITMO Update: Arrests,
37 267 Criminality of elites 22/6/20
Indictments, & Executions
Face Mask Dangers: Hypoxia,
COVID-19
Reduced Immune Efficiency, & 37 110 23/7/20
misinformation
Causation Of COVID-19 Symptoms
Table 13: Top stories from HumorousMathematics.com appearing in our data set, listed in order of Number of posts containing
the link.
QAnon and Facebook
3. QNation.us (Fringe Misinformer)

A website dedicated to the baseless Does not repeatedly Website discloses

QAnon conspiracy theory that has publish false content ownership and financing
also published false information Gathers and presents Clearly labels

about COVID-19. information responsibly advertising
Reveals who’s in charge,

clarifies errors
369
Total number
of links in
20
headlines
267
Figure 13: NewsGuard’s red rating for QNation.
QNation.us was created in 2018 and appears to be run by a resident in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Initially,
the site predominantly posted screenshots of Q posts on 8chan, a platform that routinely hosts conspiracy
theories and other harmful content and which is now known as 8kun. In addition to sharing Q posts, it
now also seems to be connected to a video-on-demand and web-hosting business called Public Media
News, Inc (PMN). and publishes video content, either hosted by PMN or YouTube.62 NewsGuard did not
find original content on the site; rather, the site amplifies content from YouTube channels, social media
influencers and other news sources popular within the QAnon community.
The site also includes a “Q’s Plan/Primer” page with an “Introduction to Q, The Plan and How We Are Going
to Save the World!” Many of the videos on the page were taken down by the time of NewsGuard’s review.
The site also includes links to apparel shops and a PayPal donation form, as well as a link to join the
National Rifle Association.
The site does not get enough engagement across major social media platforms to fall into NewsWhip’s
rankings.
QAnon and Facebook
Total number
Number of shares
of posts of all posts Story
containing containing the publication
Headline the link link Topic(s) date
Scary OP by Australian Spy in
America – Burisma Arrest – 10 2 N/A - video deleted 14/6/20
Bidens Smart VP Pick
StroppyMe: DJT Assassination
Attempt Discovered By 9 7 N/A - video deleted 18/6/20
Durham?
Dan Bongino: BS Media Criticizing mainstream
9 1 1/4/20
Narrative Alert media, Obamagate
Trump Makes His Move,
Economic Timing, Release The 9 0 N/A – video deleted 3/4/20
Chains
State Dept. Cables Released,
Disappearing Pope, Nothing 5 2 N/A - video deleted 15/4/20
Can Stop What is Coming
Table 14: Top stories from QNation.us appearing in our data set, listed in order of Number of posts containing the link.
4. UncoverDC.com (Fringe Misinformer)

A right-wing news and commentary Does not repeatedly Website discloses

site that has promoted false claims publish false content ownership and financing
and conspiracy theories that does Gathers and presents Clearly labels
not disclose its ownership or information responsibly advertising
political perspective. Reveals who’s in charge,
clarifies errors
332
Total number
of links in
27.5
headlines
284
Figure 14: NewsGuard’s red rating for UncoverDC.
QAnon and Facebook
UncoverDC.com was founded in January 2019 by Tracy Diaz (“Tracy Beanz”), a former radio host who
gained notoriety in 2017 as one of the earliest proponents of QAnon.
According to NBC News, Diaz was one of three people who “first popularized the QAnon theory” and
helped lead its evolution from publishing anonymous 4chan posts into a growing movement.63 “As Diaz
tells it in a blog post detailing her role in the early days of QAnon, she banded together with the two [4chan]
moderators”, where Q posts had first appeared, NBC News reported in August 2018. “Their goal, according
to Diaz, was to build a following for QAnon – which would mean bigger followings for them as well”.
While QAnon content doesn’t appear prominently on the site, the conspiracy is discussed on the Dark to
Light podcast, which Diaz hosts with YouTuber Frank Val. For example, in an August 2020 episode, Diaz
discussed the congressional campaign of Marjorie Taylor Greene, a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy
theory who was elected to represent Georgia in the US Congress in November 2020. Diaz commented
that coverage of Greene in the mainstream media was exposing more people to the theory. “People who
had no idea what this was are gonna start to try to look to see what it is”, Diaz said on the podcast. “Once
people see the information is presented, they’re gonna be like, this is interesting”.
The top five stories from the site that were shared in the greatest number of Facebook posts in our data
set discussed the Obamagate conspiracy, most of which were from Dark to Light podcast episodes. In its
review of the site, NewsGuard also found examples of COVID-19 misinformation, including articles falsely
stating that masks were not effective against the spread of the disease.
On 11 September 2020, according to data from NewsWhip, the site ranked #1,410 in terms of online
engagement among all news sites in the US, approximately the same ranking as local newspapers such as
California’s Redding Record Searchlight and Indiana’s The Star Press. UncoverDC’s relatively high ranking in
the engagement rankings may have been short-lived – its ranking was only #2,366 on 1 April and after the
brief surge in engagement in late summer, its ranking had fallen back to #2,134 by 11 November.
Total number
Number of shares
containing containing publication
Headline the link the link Topic(s) date
Richard Grenell Reveals
Stunning Information About
76 16 Obamagate 27/8/20
Obamagate During RNC
Speech
Dark To Light: The
51 4 Obamagate 9/9/20
Connections
What Is John Durham
Thinking?
Dark To Light: Steven Schrage
and Lindsay Graham
Dark To Light: Big Bad
Conspiracy Theorists are 25 2 Obamagate 14/8/20
Taking Over Congress
Table 15: Top stories from UncoverDC.com appearing in our data set, listed in order of Number of posts containing the link.
QAnon and Facebook
5. TheFederalist.com (Established Misinformer)

An anonymously owned website Does not repeatedly Website discloses

that has repeatedly published false publish false content ownership and financing
or misleading information in Gathers and presents Clearly labels

significant news and opinion stories. information responsibly advertising

clarifies errors
303
Total number
of links in
12.5
headlines
9,902
Figure 15: NewsGuard’s red rating for The Federalist.
Total number of TheFederalist.com links in the data set: 303.

Total number of shares of all posts containing links to TheFederalist.com in the data set: 9,902.
The Federalist, which was created in 2013, is a popular conservative website. According to data from
NewsWhip, it ranked #133 among US news sites in terms of engagement over the 90 days preceding 11
September 2020.
The site’s ownership, which is not disclosed, has been a frequent subject of speculation in the press. 64
In August 2020, The New York Times reported that the site received funding from the prominent
conservative political donor and businessman Dick Uihlein. 65
The site received significant attention in September 2019, when it was first to report the false claim that
the US intelligence community had “secretly” made changes to its whistleblower process and standards
so that a report could be filed alleging impropriety by Trump. 66 Even after the Office of the Inspector
General of the Intelligence Community issued a rare statement calling such claims false, The Federalist
did not correct or retract its report, and the site continued to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the
impeachment inquiry triggered by the whistleblower report. 67
In 2020, the site became a prominent source of COVD-19 misinformation and dangerous medical advice.
In March, the site published “How Medical ‘Chickenpox Parties’ Could Turn the Tide of the Wuhan Virus”,
which advocated a “controlled voluntary infection program”. 68 More recently, the site published the story
“Herd Immunity To COVID Is Not Reckless. It Would Protect The Vulnerable”, arguing against the scientific
consensus that herd immunity without prioritising widespread vaccination would be deadly. 69 70
The top Federalist stories shared in the posts from QAnon followers we analysed all dealt with the so-called
“Obamagate” theory. The top story, “New York Times Manipulates FBI Lawyer’s Guilty Plea To Hide Real
Obamagate News”, implicates the newspaper and the media more broadly as covering up evidence of the
QAnon and Facebook
supposed attempt to undermine Trump.
The site has directly criticised QAnon in stories dating back to 2018, when the site published a column
headlined “Why Thousands Are Obsessed With A Nest Of Conspiracy Theories Called QAnon”.71 Most
recently, an August 2020 column on the site stated, “QAnon espouses a loose collection of conspiracy
theories so sprawling and fluid that as long as you believe in some sort of conspiracy involving Trump
battling nefarious global elites, you can find a place in it”.72
Total number
Number of shares
New York Times Manipulates FBI Lawyer’s
79 824 Obamagate 17/8/20
Guilty Plea To Hide Real Obamagate News
FBI Lawyer’s Guilty Plea Suggests
39 690 Obamagate 24/8/20
Obamagate Corruption Goes Way Higher
Why John Durham Should Release His
38 6468 Obamagate 27/7/20
Obamagate Findings Before November
7 Devastating Revelations About Crossfire
14 137 Obamagate 20/4/20
Hurricane In New Releases
What We Learned Sunday From Obamagate
14 73 Obamagate 10/8/20
Insider Steven Schrage
Table 16: Top stories from TheFederalist.com appearing in our data set, listed in order of Number of posts containing the link.
QAnon and Facebook
Green-Rated sites
Links to credible and mainstream news organisations also featured regularly throughout our data set.
Many of these are sources that QAnon supporters typically denounce, such as CNN. While it may seem
counterintuitive for QAnon followers to link to news organisations that regularly report on the dangerous
and misleading offshoots of the conspiracy, an examination of QAnon activity around these websites point
to several explanations.
In some cases, QAnon followers share and celebrate mainstream news coverage of the conspiracy
because they believe it is evidence of the size and influence of QAnon.
In other cases, QAnon followers cite information from mainstream sources as supposed evidence for their
various narratives. “Do your own research” is a common refrain among QAnon followers. It follows that
the conspiracy’s most dedicated followers spend significant time interpreting Q’s posts based on publicly
available information online. In our data, we see posts from QAnon followers distorting mainstream
reporting on people, events and crimes by positioning it as evidence of the conspiracy – associating
stories about real incidents involving child trafficking or paedophilia, for example, with a pre-existing belief
that a “cabal” bears responsibility.
We examine some of the top credible sources that appeared in our data below.
1. The New York Times (nytimes.com)

This website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard’s CREDIBILITY TRANSPARENCY
standards of credibility and transparency.
The website of a New York-based Does not repeatedly Website discloses

organization with a network of journalists publish false content ownership and financing
worldwide whose coverage exerts Gathers and presents Clearly labels

significant influence on national and information responsibly advertising
international news and on public debate. Reveals who’s in charge,
clarifies errors
199
Total number
of links in
100
headlines
3,036
Figure 17: NewsGuard’s green rating of the New York Times.
QAnon and Facebook
Facebook posts in the data set that included New York Times links celebrated the mainstream outlet’s
reporting on QAnon as a conspiracy movement. Seventeen posts in the data set included a link to the
site’s 12 August story, “QAnon Followers Are Hijacking the #SaveTheChildren Movement”, accumulating
a total of 61 shares. One Facebook post that linked to the story stated, “ATTENTION ALL PATRIOTS!!! WE
HAVE MADE MAINSTREAM WITH OUR HASHTAG BLOWUPS OF #SAVETHECHILDREN #SAVEOURCHILDREN
BOTH AT 1 MILLION+ NEXT BLOWUP IS #ENDCHILDTRAFFICKING NOTHING CAN STOP WHAT’S COMING.....
NOTHING!!! #QANON #WWG1WGA”.73 The post has since been taken down. Another Facebook post that
linked to the story and that has also since been taken down came from a French user, which stated,
“PATRIOTS : le New-york TIMES !!!!.... parle de notre prouesse” (PATRIOTS: the New-york TIMES !!!! .... talks
about our prowess [sic]).74
Besides celebrating the mainstream recognition, QAnon followers surfaced an October 2014 opinion
column about paedophilia to argue that The New York Times was “trying to normalize pedophilia”, as
one post that was shared 180 times argued (the post has been since removed).75 The article, headlined
“Pedophilia: A Disorder, Not a Crime”, was written by a Rutgers Law School professor who argued that,
because paedophilia is a mental illness, “a pedophile should be held responsible for his conduct – but not
for the underlying attraction”. The same link appeared in six other posts in the data set.
2. CNN (cnn.com)
This website mostly adheres to basic standards CREDIBILITY TRANSPARENCY
of credibility and transparency.
The website of Cable News Network Does not repeatedly Website discloses
(CNN), the first U.S. television network publish false content ownership and financing
dedicated to news, which pioneered Gathers and presents Clearly labels

the 24-hour news cycle. information responsibly advertising

clarifies errors
138
Total number
of links in
87.5
headlines
749
Figure 18: NewsGuard’s green rating of CNN.
CNN’s most popular story in our data was the 7 May report “Justice Department drops criminal case against
Michael Flynn”.76 Writing in the group “FOX NEWS with Tucker Carlson”, one user shared the article with the
caption “GENERAL FLYYN IS FREE!!!! Love that I’m sharing this from CNN!!!!! Welcome back Gen Flynn!!!!!
#WWG1WGA”.77 The post accumulated more than 1,700 reactions, 300 comments and 400 shares.
Flynn, former national security adviser to outgoing President Trump, became an icon among QAnon
followers who alleged as part of their “Obamagate” theory that officials in the Obama administration had
improperly investigated Flynn in an attempt to take down Trump.78
QAnon and Facebook
Figure 19: The most-engaged CNN article appearing in our data set, which was shared in the public group “FOX NEWS with Tucker
Carlson”, celebrated the news that criminal charges against Michael Flynn had been dropped, including the QAnon hashtag WWG1WGA.
3. NBC News (nbcnews.com)

This website adheres to all nine of NewsGuard’s CREDIBILITY TRANSPARENCY
standards of credibility and transparency.
The website of NBC News, a pioneering Does not repeatedly Website discloses
American broadcaster that publishes publish false content ownership and financing
global news, original digital content, Gathers and presents Clearly labels
and clips from its network news shows. information responsibly advertising

clarifies errors
114
Total number
of links in
100
headlines
2,584
Figure 20: NewsGuard’s green rating of NBC.
Many top links from NBCNews.com focused on enforcement actions from major technology platforms
against QAnon content. The 21 July story, “Twitter bans 7,000 QAnon accounts, limits 150,000 others
as part of broad crackdown”, was posted eight times, in posts accumulating approximately 1,200 total
shares.79 Some posts expressed frustration, such as one that stated “You know, because them Qs are out
destroying cities, rioting, looting... Oh wait, that’s another group. #WWG1WGA”. 80
Others suggested takedowns were proof of the conspiracy’s accuracy. One post asked, “If we are just
Conspiracy Theorists why are they soooo afraid of us” and another exclaimed, “Here we go....they are
panicking!” before sharing an account on a different platform where they would post content if they were
removed from Facebook. 81 82 The latter post was later taken down.
QAnon and Facebook
Figure 21: One post that linked to NBC News referenced the article “Twitter bans 7,000 QAnon accounts, limits 150,000 others a
part of broad crackdown,” posted in the public group The Federalist Papers Revisited with the caption “if we are just Conspiracy
Theorists why are they soooo afraid of us. WWG1WGA”.
Other types of websites
While our domain analysis was primarily intended to understand how followers of the QAnon conspiracy
theory consume and share news online, we also examined the other types of websites whose links often
appeared in QAnon-related posts.
Platforms
A significant trend in the data was the use of a variety of platforms to host and share content. We counted
47 different platforms whose content was shared in the data set we analysed, with at least an additional
33 platforms in the broader data set but which appeared in fewer than 10 Facebook posts. Of the sites
whose links appeared in 10 or more Facebook posts, links to platforms comprised 91% of total links shared.
Naturally, major mainstream platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube comprised the vast majority of
links shared in the data set – cumulatively accounting for 86% of links posted in the data.
But less recognisable platforms and forums also featured prominently in the data, many of which appear
to be dedicated exclusively to hosting QAnon discussions. Many of these platforms have been established
by fringe influencers decrying censorship on mainstream platforms, as is the case for BitChute and Frei3.
de. Such platforms frequently host controversial, hateful and at times extremist content that would be
moderated on other platforms. The lesser-known platforms that appeared often in the data include the
following:
“Alternative” platforms used by extremists:

BitChute.com (1,015 posts)
Banned.Video (29 posts)
Frei3.de (22 posts).
Platforms dedicated exclusively to QAnon content:
The-Remnant.proboards.com (91 posts)
QAnon.pub (53 posts).
Others:
Petitions.WhiteHouse.Gov (43 posts).
QAnon and Facebook
Domains Count Unique links Shares

facebook.com 13,8165 55,542 1,843,746
youtube.com 37,874 674 144,530
twitter.com 8,392 4,906 18,417
bitchute.com 607 208 1,015
tiktok.com 391 338 125
reddit.com 183 50 2,378
google.com 124 67 418
the-remnant.proboards.com 91 91 1
wikipedia.org 71 33 357
qanon.pub 53 5 19
instagram.com 49 13 2
soundcloud.com 45 26 181
patents.google.com 44 7 89
vimeo.com 43 20 174
petitions.whitehouse.gov 43 19 117
medium.com 30 19 17
change.org 29 14 85
banned.video 29 10 31
yandex.com 28 16 668
discord.com 27 7 90
pscp.tv 27 18 18
linkedin.com 26 8 43
gofundme.com 24 21 22
bing.com 23 14 80
frei3.de 22 20 120
Table 17: Top 25 platform websites that were linked to in at least 10 different posts in our data set.
QAnon and Facebook
E-commerce
Our data set contained 76 posts with links to Alibaba.com and 34 posts with links to Amazon.com,
the Chinese and US e-commerce giants, respectively. Most top links from each domain referenced
Adrenochrome, a chemical compound created by the oxidation of adrenaline.
All Alibaba links in the data set currently or at one point showed adrenochrome for sale. Posts to these
links appeared in English, French, German and Spanish.
In Facebook groups with names such as “Justice For Human Trafficking - The LILAC Project”, “CHEMTRAILS
X CHILE” and “ON NE MARCHE PLUS” (We do not walk anymore), QAnon followers posted with alarm about
adrenochrome products available for purchase on Alibaba. 83
The most shared Alibaba link appeared in a since-deleted Facebook post that warned: “This post will hurt
each of us. adrenachrome [sic] sold in China ! Come on let’s up the game they need stopping ! Alibaba.
com offers 1,069 adrenochrome products. About 15% of these are Pharmaceutical Intermediates, 4% are
Syntheses Material Intermediates, and 1% are Dyestuff Intermediates. A wide variety of adrenochrome
options are available to you”. 84
The second most shared Alibaba link, from a Facebook post in Spanish in the public group “CHEMTRAILS X
CHILE”, explicitly implicated the Chinese government because of its ties to the company. 85
Figure 22: A Spanish-language post in the group “CHEMTRAILS X CHILE” linked to an Alibaba entry supposedly selling
Adrenochrome and claimed, without proof, the “Chinese government publicly sells you ADRENOCHROME”.
The top link from Amazon.com, shared in nine posts, was for the 2018 film “Adrenochrome” on the Prime
Video streaming service. The fictional movie includes a plot summary describing a man who “comes to
California and finds a gang of Venice Beach psychopaths killing people to get high off their adrenal glands”.86
QAnon and Facebook
Larry Cook
Posts promoting websites and social media pages The group was private, meaning it was outside the
associated with Larry Cook, a prominent anti- bounds of quantitative analysis; however, it was
vaccination activist, ranked highly among the clear from a qualitative review that Cook used the
most widely shared posts in our captured data, group to promote his video content and external
with links to each of his sites and pages posted links to other sites that he included in each post.
hundreds of times.
A November 2019 study published by the journal
Cook may be known chiefly for his anti-vaccination Vaccine found that Cook’s Facebook page was one
activism, but he also supports a range of conspiracy of two groups responsible for funding the majority of
theories related to a supposed new world order that anti-vaccine advertisements on Facebook, a practice
he maintains runs the world. For example, in one video which the platform banned in October 2020.92 93
from September, broadcast live across multiple Cook-
run Facebook pages, Cook claimed World War II and Cook can be regarded as a QAnon superspreader.
9/11 were planned events. 87 Our analysis shows that, in September, across nine
videos uploaded on his Facebook profile, which all
Notably, over the summer, Cook became a vocal heavily promoted QAnon, Cook’s uploads received
supporter of the QAnon conspiracy. In late June, 19,105 shares and 575,991 views.
the Guardian reported that Cook was “openly
courting QAnon supporters”. 88 He posted a video On Facebook and other platforms, Cook
on Facebook on 8 July to “take the oath” and always linked to his Red-rated website,
confirm he was now a believer in the conspiracy StopMandatoryVaccination.com, where he sells a
theory. Following that, he regularly broadcast
89 “heavy metal detox” product, as well his Amazon
live, lengthy videos delving into various strands of store, where he sells vitamin supplements and
the QAnon conspiracy and linked to an aggregator books about vaccines and QAnon.94 95
site that republishes posts from Q.90
A page on Cook’s website soliciting donations states
Cook acknowledged that direct links to the that donations “go directly to me and into my bank
aggregator site would be blocked by Facebook, so account, and from there I and I alone decide how
instead, he spelled out the URL in his posts to escape to use the funds to further my Stop Mandatory
action by the platform. The link was usually posted Vaccination public awareness goals”, including for his
as: “Follow Q: qmap dot pub”. This did not change personal bills and video production.96
after the 6 October Facebook QAnon ban and Cook
continued to post videos openly promoting the
conspiracy across the platform. Cook’s profile was
removed by Facebook on 17 November.
The newsletter Popular Information reported

that the profile and Cook’s page Stop Mandatory
Vaccinations were removed after they contacted
Facebook about recent posts made on the page
promoting vaccine disinformation.91 Popular
Information also reported that Facebook “claimed
the removal was a result” of the page violating the
platform’s QAnon policy.
Cook’s transformation into a QAnon advocate is

significant. He ran the Stop Mandatory Vaccination
Facebook page (143,000 followers) before it was
removed and its associated Facebook group Stop
Mandatory Lockdown, Testing, Tracking and
Vaccination (201,000 members) which was then also
Figure 16: Screenshot from private Cook-run Facebook
removed on 19 November. groups, showing that Cook regularly promotes
QAnon in his video broadcasts.
QAnon and Facebook
QAnon international
Previous research from ISD found that the US is the largest QAnon content-producing country on social
media sites where some level of geolocation is possible. It also showed that the conspiracy had gained
a foothold in numerous other countries outside the anglosphere like Russia, Indonesia and Germany.97
Similarly, a July 2020 report from NewsGuard noted how QAnon had been embraced by social media
communities in the UK, France, Germany and Italy.98 Our data set for this report supported this trend.
Among the top 10 most-active groups captured in our data, three were German-language Facebook
groups. Neues Forum 89 Leipzig, QAnon Austria and Die Welt verändert sich WWG 1 WGA saw a combined
4,300 posts published by their members in the period April-September. These groups were removed after
Facebook’s QAnon ban took effect. Our analysis shows that before this, they had a combined membership
of 37,000 users.
Why the international spread?
The main question arising from the international spread of QAnon is: what interest do non-US
communities have in a conspiracy that, at its heart, centres around US figures and is rooted in its support
for outgoing President Trump? International groups do appear to be interested in the central QAnon belief
system and share posts that are supportive of Trump, but also promote wild and baseless claims about
supposed elite-orchestrated child sex-trafficking.
Yet we also see that the conspiracy has been appropriated by regional groups to criticise “elites” in their
own countries. This is particularly evident this year as QAnon blended with COVID-19 misinformation and
the conspiracy was used to target local governments’ response to the pandemic, along with promoting co-
opted Save the Children events.99 The conspiracy has led to online and offline activity among international
communities in recent months.
One example seen in our data set was a Facebook post from a Dutch user promoting a planned “Freedom
for the Children” rally in Rotterdam on 18 September. The post included a video which featured a mixture
of Dutch and English-language memes and captions on images, including a Dutch-language explanation
of what adrenochrome supposedly is. The video featured COVID-19 disinformation centred around masks
and a lab in Wuhan, China, the city where the virus originated. The video also features an antisemitic meme
claiming that, historically, Jewish people used to kidnap Christian children for “ritual murders”.
Anti-establishment themes popularised within the US QAnon movement have also spread abroad and
have been co-opted to fuel criticism of elites in other countries. In the German-language Neues Forum
89 Leipzig group, for instance, posts that criticised German Chancellor Angela Merkel were common. One
trend identified here criticised Merkel over the prospect of increased restrictions in the country to combat
the spread of COVID-19. Like their US counterparts, these groups were found to create and host posts that
were critical of face masks or that supported protests by anti-mask activists.
In July, QAnon followers in Germany promoted a claim speculating that Merkel might be wearing an ankle
monitor in a photo, indicating that she had been arrested and was being kept under restraint. The claim
was based on photos of Merkel leaving a supermarket.100 According to QAnon advocates, a crease in the
right trouser leg, just above her ankle, matched the outline of an ankle monitor, though it wasn’t specified
what she was arrested for or who had arrested her.
In recent years, fact-checkers have devoted numerous articles to debunking claims from QAnon
supporters that Hillary Clinton was photographed wearing ankle monitors after she was also purportedly
arrested. The claim is linked to the Pizzagate/QAnon conspiracy, alleging that she was put under house
arrest for her role in a supposed child sex-trafficking network.101 It is possible that German QAnon followers
mirrored these conspiracy narratives in sharing the photos of Merkel.
QAnon and Facebook
Figure 23: Screenshot of Facebook post claiming German Chancellor Merkel was photographed wearing an ankle monitor. The user
references seeing the post in “Q Faktor Germany”, a German QAnon Facebook group that was removed in the 6 October ban.102
Spanish-language QAnon
The spread of QAnon to countries and cultures across the world was reflected in our data set that captured
posts from a Spanish-language QAnon superspreader on Facebook. The user’s most-viewed upload,
watched over 786,000 times since 24 April, is a video featuring comments from QAnon supporter Timothy
Charles Holmseth, dubbed by a Spanish-language narrator. Holmseth claims that the Clinton Foundation
was involved in a child sex-trafficking ring and kept thousands of children in tunnels and bunkers under
New York.
The user’s accompanying Spanish-language caption claims that the USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort,
military hospital ships which were used to help treat COVID-19 patients in Los Angeles and New York, were
ordered to the cities by Trump to receive thousands of recently saved children from underground bunkers
beneath the cities. The user further claims that the bulk of saved children were from Spanish-speaking
countries south of the US like Mexico and Guatemala. There is no evidence to support any of these claims.
A Reuters fact-check confirmed that thousands of children were not recently rescued from tunnels by
the US military.103 On 24 April, the Spanish-language user uploaded their video directly promoting the
Pizzagate conspiracy, which has been viewed over 587,000 times. Despite Facebook’s QAnon ban, this
user’s content is still live on the platform.
Portuguese-language QAnon
Among the most-shared links in our data set was a post that linked to the YouTube channel of a Brazilian
conspiracy theorist and QAnon supporter Ana Marins.104 Marins’ most popular upload features a clip of
Sandra Bullock speaking to Ellen DeGeneres about a new facial therapy dubbed the “penis facial” and has
been viewed over 130,000 times since July.105 The treatment is “derived from stem cells taken from the
discarded foreskins of newborn babies”, as explained by the Huffington Post.106
The Brazilian conspiracy theorist’s YouTube channel also included a Portuguese-subtitled version of
“The Fall of Cabal”, though this was removed after the 15 October YouTube ban on QAnon content.
Another popular video, still available on YouTube, features Marins talking over images of Disney movies
QAnon and Facebook
and cartoons, discussing the supposed symbolism hidden in characters popularised by the company like
Mickey Mouse.107 This is a direct extension of a central belief among QAnon followers that claims that the
company is part of a child trafficking network, as explained by the BBC.108
The clip has also been used by other Brazilian QAnon followers to spread disinformation about supposed
ongoing child sex-trafficking orchestrated by elites. One such Facebook post, shared 77 times within
our data set, featured the footage and posted it alongside a lengthy Portuguese description about
Adrenochrome.109 The Facebook post, which is still live on the platform, explains that the drug is popular
among “the artists, models and elites who are part of the cabal” [translation].
Non-US news sites
The majority of news sites that were linked to in this data set were English-language sources, primarily
based in the US. The data included 235 English-language news sites which were linked to a cumulative
13,629 times, representing 87% of news website links in the data.
While English was the most represented language among news sources shared in the data, news websites
in several other languages, mainly those spoken in Western Europe, were also shared in the data set in
significant numbers. After English, Italian news sites accounted for the next greatest number of news links
in the data (584), followed by French (461), German (442), Bosnian (99), Dutch (85) and Spanish (84). In all,
there were news sites from 15 languages represented in the data set.
Number of Number of Number of Percentage of Percentage Percentage

Language domains links shares domains of links of shares
English 235 13,629 265,842 77.56% 87.32% 92.17%
Italian 15 584 4,483 4.95% 3.74% 1.55%
French 10 461 5,804 3.30% 2.95% 2.01%
German 23 442 7,748 7.59% 2.83% 2.69%
Bosnian 3 99 265 0.99% 0.63% 0.09%
Dutch 3 85 850 0.99% 0.54% 0.29%
Spanish 5 84 1,476 1.65% 0.54% 0.51%
Japanese 1 55 566 0.33% 0.35% 0.20%
Romanian 1 44 143 0.33% 0.28% 0.05%
Polish 1 34 449 0.33% 0.22% 0.16%
Norwegian 2 33 302 0.66% 0.21% 0.10%
Croatian 1 16 33 0.33% 0.10% 0.01%
Czech 1 15 207 0.33% 0.10% 0.07%
Hungarian 1 15 121 0.33% 0.10% 0.04%
Danish 1 13 122 0.33% 0.08% 0.04%
Total 303 15,609 288,411 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%
Table 18: News sites shared in the data broken down by site language.
QAnon and Facebook
As was observed with Facebook data showing QAnon’s spread outside the US, the geographic diversity
of news websites shared in the data reflects this trend also. This mirrors previous NewsGuard research
from July 2020 that reported that the conspiracy theory has enjoyed a surge in interest in the UK, France,
Germany and Italy, where websites and social media accounts have sprung up to foster the development
of QAnon communities in each nation.110
Followers abroad take the central themes of the conspiracy theory – paedo-criminality, the existence of
“deep state” etc. – and adapt them to their local context. In their retelling, right-wing leaders like UK Prime
Minister Boris Johnson and former Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini are working with Trump
to fight against left-leaning “elite” leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron, Germany Chancellor
Angela Merkel and even the European Commission.
The data in this report adds new detail to this trend, indicating that QAnon has spread even wider than
we had previously observed, reaching into Eastern Europe (the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Croatia,
Bosnia and Hungary) and is gaining traction in Japan as well.
Two foreign language sites made it into the top 20 news sites appearing the greatest number of Facebook
posts in the data: Qactus.fr (French) and LaCrunaDellAgo.net (Italian). Below, we present two case studies
of those websites and how they were shared by QAnon followers in our data set.
Qactus.fr (France)
An anonymously run website that Does not repeatedly Website discloses

publishes hoaxes and false information publish false content ownership and financing
linked to the right-wing, conspiratorial Gathers and presents Clearly labels

movement QAnon. information responsibly advertising

clarifies errors
161
Total number
of links in
7.5
headlines
1,159
Figure 24: NewsGuard’s red rating of Qactus.
Qactus, which means “Qnews” in French, is an anonymously-run website that publishes false information
related to the QAnon conspiracy theory. Links from the site that were frequently shared by QAnon
followers in our data set spanned a range of topics, including a video that promoted a conspiracy theory
that John F. Kennedy Jr. is still alive, an article that suggested that US police departments were connected
to Freemasons (an enduring target of conspiracy theories) and a lengthy explainer on QAnon (redpilling).
QAnon and Facebook
Total number
Number of shares
containing containing publication
Headline the link the link Topic(s) date
QINFOS – Ecussons de certaine Police US, y
voyez vous des similitudes avec un symbole
connus ?? (QINFO – Badges of some US 11 204 Deep State 31/5/20
Police, do you see similarities with a known
symbol??)
JFK JR……….Êtes-vous prêt?(JFK JR………. Are
9 29 JFK Jr. 15/6/20
you ready?)
Q VIDEOS - D-TRUMP – « ON LES A TOUS
Trump,
ATTRAPÉ ». (Q VIDEOS – D-TRUMP – “WE 8 33 13/8/20
deep state
CAUGHT THEM ALL.”)
Q INFOS – Un cours intensif sur les QAnons
avec Liz Crokin. (Q INFO – A crash course on6 15 Red pilling 24/8/20
QAnon with Liz Crokin.)
Q INFOS – Un spectateur interpelle Bill
Clinton!! (Q INFO – A spectator calls out Bill 5 32 Clintons 28/6/20
Clinton!!)
Table 19: Top stories from Qactus.fr appearing in our data set.
LaCrunaDellAgo.net (Italy) (lacrunadellago.net)

The website of Italian blogger Cesare Does not repeatedly Website discloses
Sacchetti, which has frequently published publish false content ownership and financing
false and misleading information on the Gathers and presents Clearly labels
2020 coronavirus pandemic, as well as information responsibly advertising
unsubstantiated conspiracy theories. Reveals who’s in charge,
clarifies errors
140
Total number
of links in
25
headlines
1,049
Figure 25: NewsGuard’s red rating of La Cruna Dell’Ago.
QAnon and Facebook
La Cruna Dell’Ago (which means “The eye of the needle”) is the blog of Italian journalist Cesare Sacchetti,
which he created in 2018 to publish “news and opinions that are censored by the inquisition of the
politically correct and mainstream propaganda”, as described on the site’s About Me page. The site has
published a range of falsehoods about COVID-19, Bill Gates and a supposed “new world order”, but it does
not appear to directly mention QAnon in its content.
The top La Cruna Dell’Ago stories shared in the posts from QAnon followers promoted the notion that
Trump is working to combat the “new world order” of deep-state elites like Bill Gates (referencing the
myth that COVID-19 was a human-made virus released with the support of Gates) and Barack Obama
(referencing the Obamagate conspiracy theory). While these articles generally focused on US politics, they
frequently included descriptions of supposed connections to Italy.
• The August 2020 article “This fall, Trump will fight his final battle against the new world order” claimed
that “Spygate involves Italy” because the country “had a leading role in the coup against Trump”. The
article, which appeared in 113 posts in our data and was shared a cumulative 728 times, also claimed
that “Spygate is the most powerful weapon which [sic] Trump has in order to prevent Italy’s fall in the
hands of this looming global dictatorship”.
• The July 2020 article “Can the Trump-Viganò alliance free Italy from the globalist dictatorship and stop
the new world order?” described a supposed “alliance” between Trump and the Italian Archbishop Carlo
Maria Viganò to counter the forces of globalism. The story was posted in four different posts in our data
set, which were shared a total of 218 times.
Total number
Number of shares
Trump in autunno combatterà la sua battaglia Trump, deep
finale contro il nuovo ordine mondiale (This state, New
113 728 7/8/20
fall, Trump will fight his final battle against the World Order,
new world order) Obamagate
Lo spygate: lo scandalo che i media italiani
non vogliono raccontare (Spygate: The
15 54 Spygate 18/2/20
scandal that the Italian media does not want
to cover)
Trump pronto a mettere fine all’operazione
terroristica Covid: ora il mondialismo farà di Trump, deep
tutto per eliminarlo (Trump ready to put an 5 15 state, globalism, 8/9/20
end to the Covid terrorist operation: now new world order
globalism will do everything to eliminate it)
L’alleanza Trump-Viganò può liberare
l’Italia dalla dittatura globalista e fermare il Trump, deep
nuovo ordine mondiale? (Can the Trump- 4 218 state,New World 17/7/20
Viganò alliance free Italy from the globalist Order, Spygate
dictatorship and stop the new world order?)
Le email hackerate di Wuhan e Bill
Gates:”covid-19 fatto in laboratorio e
Bill Gates,
rilasciato intenzionalmente” (The hacked
1 22 COVID-19 23/4/20
emails of Wuhan and Bill Gates: “covid-19
misinformation
made in the laboratory and released
intentionally”)
Table 20: Top stories from LaCrunaDellAgo.net appearing in our data set, listed in order of Number of posts containing the link.
QAnon and Facebook
It is also worth noting that many of the English-language news websites that appeared in our data are
based outside of the US, in countries including the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. For example,
analysing the top-level domains (e.g., “.com” and “.net”) of English-language news sites in our data reveals
that at least 14 websites serve English-speaking countries outside of the US, signalling QAnon’s spread to
anglophone countries abroad.
• Seven websites ended with the UK domain ending “.uk” (dailymail.co.uk, independent.co.uk, thesun.
co.uk, express.co.uk, telegraph.co.uk, metro.co.uk and bbc.co.uk).
• Three websites ended with the Australian domain ending “.au” (skynews.com.au, theaustralian.com.au
and abc.net.au).
• Three websites ended with the Canadian domain ending “.ca” (montreal.ctvnews.ca, globalnews.ca
and toronto.ctvnews.ca).
• One website ended with the New Zealand domain ending “.nz” (thespinoff.co.nz).
Top-level domains are an imperfect metric for measuring the country served by a news site – many are
consumed in countries in which they are not based and other news sites are based in a country that is not
indicated by their domain ending. For example, ConspiracyDailyUpdate.com is an Australian website that
appeared frequently in our data set, but its country of origin cannot be deduced from its top-level domain.
We present a case study of this website below.
ConspiracyDailyUpdate.com (Australia)
An Australian blog that publishes false Does not repeatedly Website discloses
information and promotes debunked publish false content ownership and financing
and baseless conspiracy theories, Gathers and presents Clearly labels

including about COVID-19 and QAnon. information responsibly advertising

clarifies errors
221
Total number
of links in
7.5
headlines
67
Figure 26: NewsGuard’s red rating of Conspiracy Daily Update.
One of the top news sources shared by QAnon followers in our data was ConspiracyDailyUpdate.com, a
blog run by a resident of Perth, Australia named Bryan Robert Hyland. Links from the site appeared in our
data 221 times.
Articles from the site are typically rambling introductions making several conspiratorial claims in quick
succession, followed by dozens of screenshots of tweets and Facebook posts, without a clear explanation
of their significance or connection between one another.
QAnon and Facebook
The site’s top story in our data directly connected the COVID-19 pandemic to QAnon by claiming: “5 million
kids are being rescued from underground under the cover of Operation COVID-19. That is what is really
going on with the lockdowns. They are to keep our kids inside and safe while the monsters are rounded up
and executed. None will escape!”
The site includes references to other major themes discussed in this report, such as
Obamagate and adrenochrome. It also discusses other conspiracies that have gained widespread
attention during the pandemic, such as one about 5G technology, as well as more obscure ones, such as
the conspiracy popularised by former British footballer David Icke about the existence of humans who are
secretly reptiles.111 112
Conclusion
This research provides a comprehensive examination of QAnon narratives and communities on Facebook
over five months, providing one of the most exhaustive and extensive analyses of the conspiracy
theory’s operations online. Crucially, the research covers a period during which QAnon activity surged
on Facebook. After data was collected, the analysis period overlapped with Facebook’s 6 October ban on
QAnon content, meaning this research also provides one of the earliest examinations of the efficacy of
these actions and how the conspiracy continues to survive on the platform.
The report analyses the dominant narratives, topics and actors among QAnon communities on Facebook
and examines the key role of superspreader Facebook profiles in the amplification of redpilling or
introductory material about the conspiracy on the platform. The report also offers a unique and novel
assessment of how QAnon followers discuss and share news content as fodder to support and advance
their theories, as we discuss both the sources (news websites) that were frequently relied on and the
stories (news articles) that frequently appeared within the QAnon community. Lastly, the report explores
the international spread of the conspiracy on Facebook.
The key conclusions are discussed in detail below.
Superspreader profiles
We discovered that numerous videos promoting key tenets of the QAnon conspiracy that often received
large views on the platform were first posted on personal Facebook profiles. These accounts act as QAnon
superspreaders in that they frequently posted about the conspiracy and pushed introductory “redpilling”
QAnon material that explained the conspiracy, including the central baseless allegations against politicians
and celebrities. Videos from users like these were widely shared in our data set and viewed millions of
times on Facebook overall through page and group share functions, indicating superspreaders likely
played a crucial role in expanding the user base of people exposed to QAnon content on the platform.
Examining the impact of superspreader activity also allows us to reflect on Facebook’s ban of QAnon
content on the platform. Following Facebook’s ban, many pages and groups recorded in our analysis
were removed and their links no longer active, indicating that these actions were successful in limiting
the spread of the conspiracy through these platform spaces. Yet this came after these same pages and
groups had amassed tens of thousands of followers or members on Facebook and were able to use the
platform’s networked infrastructure to share or promote harmful material that espoused a dangerous
world view with few limitations in the US and across the world over the past three years. The ban was also
only enforced after the conspiracy experienced an unprecedented surge in interest and expansion of its
supporter base throughout 2020. In short, the ban came too late.
In addition, QAnon superspreader activity reveals the shortcomings of Facebook’s enforcement of the
ban. Throughout our report, we’ve noted how QAnon content posted on personal profiles remains live on
the platform. Personal profiles sharing QAnon content operate in similar ways to since-removed pages/
groups, yet the former category has yet to face any systematic response from Facebook.
QAnon and Facebook
Other established platforms like YouTube have similarly banned QAnon content of late, while Twitter has
taken limited steps in banning accounts and links associated with QAnon content.113 TikTok, a relatively
new platform compared to other more established sites, has blocked hashtags related to the conspiracy
as well.114 The findings from our report indicate that proactive and early content moderation from
platforms that monitor and limit the spread of disinformation campaigns, rather than simplistic responses
that allow the infrastructure that supports the spread of harmful or false material to remain live on
platforms, would be more effective in thwarting the reach of dangerous conspiracies like QAnon.
The role of personal profiles should not be understated. They perform a key function in promoting the
conspiracy and working to convert ordinary Facebook users into fully fledged QAnon supporters by way
of organising and sharing “redpilling” material. These instruction manuals for QAnon encourage followers
to do research and conduct their investigations based on the central tenets of the conspiracy. Decoding
cryptic drops from Q or discovering an apparent link between high-profile individuals, though completely
baseless and formed from a conspiratorial mindset, can serve as a highly motivating factor to continue
to believe in QAnon and become further entrenched in the belief system. A quote from the first post
published on Humorous Mathematics, one of the websites most-frequently shared in our data set, reflects
the perceived empowerment of this DIY ethos.115
“This current “pandemic crisis” is affording everyone the opportunity to take a look at the bigger picture,
and more people than ever are beginning to step toward” [sic], one of the site’s co-founders wrote in
the first post on the site. “The heavy lifting is no longer being solely left to the few and battered whistle
blowers [sic], risking their lives and families, and sacrificing their careers and reputations, to provide crucial
information to an uncaring or unappreciative populace. No... now you and I and anyone with a voice are
working together to get this information out, and the numbers are multiplying by the second”.
Many QAnon supporters frame their belief system not as a fearful narrative about the dangers of sex-
trafficking, but one about finding ways for good (Q) to defeat evil (the deep state). Through platforms
like Facebook, “anyone with a voice” has endless resources at their disposal to research and discover
information about QAnon and “get this information out” through the networked platform architecture of
social platforms that, by way of their design, prompt users to like, share, click and comment on content.
Everyone can be a QAnon superspreader – in fact it is highly encouraged.
Misinformation websites
We discovered that a handful of unreliable “news” websites were repeatedly shared in the data set,
providing QAnon followers with constant news updates and fodder for frequent posts discussing
news developments (or perceived ones). These unreliable sites fell into two categories: Established
Misinformers that are widely popular beyond QAnon followers and Fringe Misinformers whose popularity
is more exclusive to QAnon followers. But while unreliable news websites were more frequently shared in
the data set and posts containing links to unreliable websites received the greatest levels of engagement,
the data set also revealed that QAnon followers share a significant amount of content from mainstream
news websites – even those that QAnon followers frequently criticise, such as CNN.
This data reveals that QAnon followers reference digital media in various ways. Most significantly,
pernicious and unreliable news sites provide QAnon followers with ammunition for advancing their
numerous theories or incorporating anti-establishment narratives into QAnon and its general world view.
Interestingly though, QAnon followers also use news reports from reliable sites – either to celebrate
moments when QAnon is mentioned in the mainstream news or to cite factual events and twist them to
support their world view. For news organisations whose reporting is used as a supporting reference for
elements of the conspiracy, as we found with the use of mainstream news featured in QAnon “redpilling”
guides, there is a responsibility to ensure that their audience is reminded that the conspiracy remains just
that: a harmful belief system that is not grounded in facts.
QAnon and Facebook
International spread
This report also demonstrates the extent to which QAnon has established an international reach, in
particular following the surge of content posted in August. This confirms findings from previous research
from ISD and NewsGuard, which indicated that the conspiracy theory was finding a foothold in several
countries that were not initially implicated in the initially US-focused mythology.116 117
Three of the top 10 most-active communities posting QAnon content captured in our data were German-
language Facebook groups. Our domain analysis revealed that there were 15 different languages
represented among the news sites commonly shared by QAnon followers on Facebook. Three of the top 20
news sites that were shared in the greatest number of Facebook posts in the data set were based outside of
the US: ConspiracyDailyUpdate.com (Australia), Qactus.fr (France) and LaCrunaDellAgo.net (Italy).
Our analysis indicates that this international spread is at least in part due to QAnon followers that are
motivated to localise content to their countries, including by dubbing or subtitling English-language
content with their local languages. We also noted examples of users drawing parallels between the US and
their local political contexts, further driving adoption of the QAnon conspiracy theory by international
audiences.
Recommendations
The findings of this report have numerous implications for the tech sector, media and governments.
Tech sector
• There were many instances of individual Facebook user profiles spreading QAnon conspiracy theories
and disinformation, which received increased visibility via sharing on pages and groups. While the
platform ban affected pages and groups, our report found that much of the underlying content from
individual users was still live on the platform. Facebook and similar social media platforms should
consider tiered content moderation policies for individual users, enabling more robust action against
those that consistently violate terms of service relating to harmful content. For example, some content-
moderation systems already include “warning” strikes for users who continue to violate community
standards before accounts are suspended or removed, which can help to maintain a balanced and
proportionate approach to user safety and expression on platforms.
• While moderation of content can be a useful approach, platforms should also consider deprioritising
QAnon content in their recommendation algorithms, as has been done with contents relating to public
health concerns (e.g., COVID-19 and vaccine disinformation). This can be an effective approach to limit
the visibility of this type of problematic content without encroaching upon freedom of speech.
• This research has demonstrated how a slow response from platforms can enable the rapid spread of
conspiracy theories. Platforms should proactively monitor the spread of potentially harmful conspiracies
to enable more rapid responses.
• Platforms should also increase transparency around their approaches to content moderation and
algorithmic prioritisation. The 6 October Facebook ban appears to have been keyword-based yet there
is no way of knowing for sure without greater transparency from the platform. Increased clarity around
these policies can improve independent researchers’ ability to identify potential pitfalls and understand
how problematic content spreads through the online ecosystem. Transparency around content
moderation poses inherent challenges, as bad actors can take advantage of this to avoid running afoul
of platform guidelines; however, platforms should work collaboratively with independent researchers to
determine the best way to increase transparency without undermining moderation efforts.
QAnon and Facebook
Media
• This research has shown how QAnon followers can cite mainstream reporting in ways that support
their conspiracy theories. News websites that are green-rated by NewsGuard make up a substantial
portion of those cited by QAnon followers and their stories are reframed in ways that allow QAnon
followers to validate their claims. In some cases, mainstream news content will attract interest from
QAnon supporters randomly, yet can be framed as part of the wider conspiracy narrative. Media should
aim to report on QAnon in ways that avoid providing credibility or validity to the conspiracy theory, and
where appropriate, highlight how fact-checking organisations and supplementary news reports have
demonstrated there is no evidence to support the central tenets of the conspiracy.
Governments
• Democratic governments should also proactively monitor the spread of potentially harmful contents
on public social media channels and designate disinformation narratives as threats as appropriate.
This should be done with careful consideration given to freedoms of expression and privacy. The
designation of QAnon as a potential domestic terrorism threat by the US government helped justify
platforms’ decisions to moderate related contents. Given how quickly conspiracy theories spread online,
governments should create monitoring systems that allow them to react accordingly.
QAnon and Facebook
Appendix A – Keyword list

2yrdelta OpMayflower2019 qproof
3DaysOfDarkness ourchildrenarenotforsale qresearch
adrenochrome patriotsawakened qsentme
adrenochromeharvesting patriotsfight qsentus
adrenochromejunkies pedogate qstorm
AdrenochromeWithdrawal pedogate2019 qthestorm
aliexpressgate pedogate2020 qthewakeup
asktheq pedovore redcastlegreencastle
aussieQ pedowoodisreal redpillq
billclintonispedo pervywood researchQ
BlakeDavidHampe pizzagateisreal ripkappy
cabaltakedown pizzagateLsreal satanicelite
cannibalclub projectbluebeam satanichollywood
CBTS_Stream qanan seeqfind
CelebrityCannibalism qanon2017 sheepnomore
cemexchildsexcamp qanon2018 spiritcooking
clintonbodycount qanon2019 starvemoloch
ClintonCrimesAgainstChildren qanon2020 stormiscoming
cometpingpong qanon4chan taketheoath
darktolight qanon8chan thebagery
deepstatecabal qanon8kun thebaqery
deepstatemappingproject qanonarmy thefutureprovespast
digitalsoldier qanonaustralia thegreatawakening
digitalsoldiers qanonbalkan thegreatawakeningworldwide
digitalsoldiersworldwide Qanonbomber thesepeopleareevil
fallcabal qanonBR thesepeoplearesick
fallofcabal qanoncanada thestormhasarrived
fallofthecabal qanonfrance thestormiscoming
followQ qanongermany thestormishere
followthewhiterabbit qanonisreal thestormisuponus
frazzledrip qanonpatriot traitormccann
futureprovespast qanonpatriots Trump2Q2Q
godblessQ qanonposts trusttheplan
GoodTRUMPsEvil qanons unitednotdivided
greatawakening qanonsbringingtruth wakeupanon
GreatAwakeningWorldwide qanonspain wayfairchildtrafficking
greatawakeningWW qanonstorm wayfairgate
Habbening qanonsworldwide weareQ
hisnamewassethrich qanonUK WeAreSavingOurChildrenNow
hollywoodpedos qanonukdivision wearethenewsnow
hrcrawvideo qanonUS wearethestorm
HRCvideo QanonUSA weinerslaptop
inQwetrust qanonworldwide wherewegoonewegoall
isaackappy qanonymous whiterabbitreality
luciferiancabal qarmy wqke
MakeitrainQ qarmyworldwide wrwy
marinaabramovic Qbama wwg1wga
myfavoritenumberis17 qdigs WWG1WGA_WORLDWIDE
newtoQ qisreal wwg1wgall
okpedo qmaildrops wwg1wgaworldwide
operationbackyardbrawl qmap wwgowga
operationmockingbird qpatriot yourcelebsarepedos
OPMAYFLOWER qpill
QAnon and Facebook
References
1
NewsGuard, Tracking Facebook’s COVID-19 misinformation ‘superspreaders’ (23 April 2020), https://www.newsguardtech.com/superspreaders/,[accessed on 19
November 2020].
2
Bellingcat, From memes to infowars: how 75 fascist activist were “red-pilled” (11 October 2018), https://www.bellingcat.com/news/americas/2018/10/11/memes-
infowars-75-fascist-activists-red-pilled/, [accessed on 1 December 2020].
3
The Guardian, Swallowing the red pill: a journey to the heart of modern misogyny (14 April 2016). https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/apr/14/the-red-
pill-reddit-modern-misogyny-manosphere-men, [accessed on 1 December 2020].
4
ISD, The Genesis of a Conspiracy Theory (2020), https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/The-Genesis-of-a-Conspiracy-Theory.pdf.
5
Intelligencer, The storm is the new Pizzagate – only worse (19 December 2017), https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/12/qanon-4chan-the-storm-conspiracy-
explained.html, [accessed on 30 November 2020].
6
NBC News, How three conspiracy theorists took ‘Q’ and sparked Qanon (14 August 2018), https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/how-three-conspiracy-
theorists-took-q-sparked-qanon-n900531, [accessed on 11 October 2020].
7
Pew Research Center, 5 facts about the QAnon conspiracy theories (16 November 2020), https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/16/5-facts-about-the-
qanon-conspiracy-theories/, , [accessed on 30 November 2020].
8
NBC News, How QAnon rode the pandemic to new heights – and fueled the viral anti-mask phenomenon, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/how-qanon-
rode-pandemic-new-heights-fueled-viral-anti-mask-n1236695, [accessed on November 2020].
9
Genesis of a Conspiracy Theory, n4.
10
NBC News, QAnon groups have millions of members on Facebook, documents show (10 August 2020), https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/qanon-groups-
have-millions-members-facebook-documents-show-n1236317, [accessed on 22 October 2020].
11
The Guardian, The growing influence of the QAnon conspiracy theory (21 September 2020), https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/sep/21/the-growing-
influence-of-the-qanon-conspiracy-theory-podcast, [accessed on 22 October 2020].
12
Available via the CrowdTangle API.
13
14
NewsGuard, n1. https://www.newsguardtech.com/superspreaders/
15
NewsGuard, rating process criteria, https://www.newsguardtech.com/ratings/rating-process-criteria/, [accessed on 1 December 2020].
16
Ibid.
17
The Guardian, Facebook restricts more than 10,000 QAnon and US militia groups (19 August 2020), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/19/facebook-
qanon-us-militia-groups-restrictions, [accessed on 22 October 2020].
18
The Guardian, White House says Trump doesn’t know of QAnon, despite his tacit endorsement (23 August 2020), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/
aug/23/donald-trump-qanon-conspiracy-theory, [accessed on 11 October 2020].
19
NBC News, QAnon looms behind nationwide rallies and viral #SavetheChildren hashtags (21 August 2020),https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/qanon-looms-
behind-nationwide-rallies-viral-hashtags-n1237722, [accessed on 25 September 2020].
20
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/JacksonvilleFloridaThe904/videos/865354027321781/.
21
CBS News, What is the QAnon conspiracy theory? (24 November 2020), https ://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-is-the-qanon-conspiracy-theory/, [accessed on 18
November 2020].
22
Hope not hate, BitChute: platforming hate and terror in the UK (20 July 2020), https://www.hopenothate.org.uk/2020/07/20/bitchute-platforming-hate-and-terror-
in-the-uk/, [accessed on 22 October 2020].
23
The Guardian, The UK social media platform where neo-Nazis can view terror atrocities (28 June 2020), https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/28/the-uk-
social-media-platform-where-neo-nazis-can-view-terror-atrocities, [accessed on 22 October 2020].
24
New York Times, Bill Gates met with Jeffrey Epstein many times, despite his past (12 October 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/business/jeffrey-epstein-
bill-gates.html, [accessed in October 2020].
25
BuzzFeed News, How Jeffrey Epstein bought his way into an exclusive intellectual boys club (26 September 2019), https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/
peteraldhous/jeffrey-epstein-john-brockman-edge-foundation, [accessed in October 2020].
26
The Daily Beast, Jeffrey Epstein’s Hollywood pipeline ran straight to Harvey Weinstein (31 August 2020), https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeffrey-epsteins-hollywood-
pipeline-ran-straight-to-harvey-weinstein, [accessed in October 2020].
27
YouTube, https://youtu.be/sb9jRqgDOJ8.
28
BBC News, The saga of ‘Pizzagate’: The fake story that shows how conspiracy theories spread, (2 December 2016), https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-
trending-38156985, [accessed on 14 October 2020].
29
The Guardian, What is QAnon? Explaining the bizarre rightwing conspiracy theory (31 July 2018), https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/30/qanon-
4chan-rightwing-conspiracy-theory-explained-trump, [accessed on 14 October 2020].
30
New York Times, QAnon followers are hijacking the #SavetheChildren movement (12 August 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/technology/qanon-save-
the-children-trafficking.html, [accessed on 14 September 2020].
31
n19.
32
n30.
33
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/marcelaiglesiashollywood/photos/a.1652962178157764/3205037106283589/?type=3&theater.
34
Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/p/CDtiiGwFuGJ/
35
New York Times, Jeffrey Epstein and when to take conspiracies seriously (13 August 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/13/opinion/jeffrey-epstein-suicide.
html, [accessed on 14 October 2020].
36
Vice News, The Epstein scandal is giving QAnon everything Pizzagate couldn’t (7 October 2019), https://www.vice.com/en/article/a3xmgg/the-epstein-scandal-is-
giving-qanon-everything-pizzagate-couldnt, [accessed on 18 November 2020].
37
Los Angeles magazine, Inside QAnon, the conspiracy cult that’s devouring America (17 August 2020), https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/qanon-gop/, [accessed
on 14 October 2020].
38
Factcheck.org, How old claims compare to IG report (10 December 2019), https://www.factcheck.org/2019/12/how-old-claims-compare-to-ig-report/, [accessed in
October 2020].
39
CNN, Breaking down ‘Obamagate,’ Trump’s latest theory about the ‘deep state’ and Obama’s role in the Russia investigation (13 May 2020), https://www.cnn.
com/2020/05/13/politics/trump-obama-obamagate-russia/index.html, [accessed in October 2020].
40
Wall Street Journal, FBI internal probe find errors in FISA warrants didn’t undermine cases (30 July 2020), https://www.wsj.com/articles/fbi-internal-probe-finds-errors-
in-fisa-warrants-didnt-undermine-cases-11596127762, [accessed in October 2020].
41
US Department of Justice, Review of four FISA applications and other aspects of the FBI’s crossfire hurricane investigation, (December 2019), https://www.justice.gov/
storage/120919-examination.pdf.
42
Ibid.
43
New York Times, How ‘Spygate’ attacks fizzled (20 October 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/technology/how-spygate-attacks-fizzled.html, [accessed
in October 2020].
44
https://qanon.pub/?#3661
45
New York Times, US drops Michael Flynn case, in move backed by Trump (7 May 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/us/politics/michael-flynn-case-
dropped.html?searchResultPosition=3, [accessed in October 2020].
46
The Washington Post, ‘Unmasking’ probe commissioned by Barr concludes without charges or any public report (13 October 2020), https://www.washingtonpost.
com/national-security/barr-unmasking-review-no-charges/2020/10/13/0f63fd2e-0d67-11eb-8074-0e943a91bf08_story.html, [accessed in October 2020].
47
https://qanon.pub/?q=obamagate
48
Reuters, Fact check: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot did not advocate selecting leaders who are part of a “New World Order” conspiracy (27 May 2020), https://uk.reuters.
com/article/uk-factcheck-chicago-mayor-conspiracy/fact-check-chicago-mayor-lori-lightfoot-did-not-advocate-selecting-leaders-who-are-part-of-a-new-world-
order-conspiracy-idUSKBN23329E, [accessed on 19 November 2020].
49
The Washington Post, National security adviser Flynn discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador, despite denials, officials say (9 February 2017), https://
www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/national-security-adviser-flynn-discussed-sanctions-with-russian-ambassador-despite-denials-officials-
say/2017/02/09/f85b29d6-ee11-11e6-b4ff-ac2cf509efe5_story.html, [accessed in October 2020].
50
The Daily Beast, How QAnon became obsessed with ‘adrenochrome,’ an imaginary drug Hollywood is ‘harvesting’ from kids (14 August 2020), https://www.
thedailybeast.com/how-qanon-became-obsessed-with-adrenochrome-an-imaginary-drug-hollywood-is-harvesting-from-kids, [accessed in October 2020].
51
Google Books, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Fear_and_Loathing_in_Las_Vegas/
R11qaqN4jzQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=adrenochrome, [accessed in October 2020].
52
Wired, The dark virality of a Hollywood blood-harvesting conspiracy (31 July 2020), https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-dark-virality-of-a-hollywood-blood-
harvesting-conspiracy/, [accessed on 22 October 2020].
53
ADL, Blood libel: a false, incendiary claim against Jews, https://www.adl.org/education/resources/glossary-terms/blood-libel, [accessed in October 2020].
54
ISD will name individual social media users only if they represent a public figure, usually with a verified profile. This is for two primary reasons. The first is to protect the
user from potential targeted harassment, particularly as online data is collected without informed consent from subjects. The second is to avoid providing users that
QAnon and Facebook
post problematic content with further visibility. With this report, we aim to draw attention to the issue of the spread of this potentially harmful conspiracy theory online,
not to individual user profiles.
55
Lead Stories, Fact check: COVID-19 – insurgency video pushes several falsehoods and unproven conspiracy theories (2 July 2020), https://leadstories.com/hoax-
alert/2020/07/fact-check-covid911-Insurgency-video-contains-several-falsehoods-and-unproven-conspiracy-theories.html, [accessed on 6 October 2020].
56
n4.
57
Newswhip, https://www.newswhip.com/.
58
Archive.today, https://archive.vn/NPmO2.
59
Ibid, http://archive.is/DSjih.
60
Ibid, https://archive.vn/gAGgt.
61
Ibid.
62
PublicNewsMedia.org, http://publicnewsmedia.org/.
63
n6.
64
BuzzFeed News, The weekly standard’s corporate owner considered buying the Federalist (28 August 2019), https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/
federalist-weekly-standard, [accessed in October 2020].
65
New York Times, These conservatives have a laser focus: ‘Owning the Libs’ (3 August 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/03/us/politics/the-federalist-trump-
liberals.html, [accessed in October] 2020.
66
The Federalist, Intel Community Secretly Gutted Requirement Of First-Hand Whistleblower Knowledge (27 September 2019), https://thefederalist.com/2019/09/27/
intel-community-secretly-gutted-requirement-of-first-hand-whistleblower-knowledge/ , [accessed in October 2020]
67
Archive.today, https://archive.vn/84Jhr.
68
Ibid, https://archive.vn/SnIxq.
69
Ibid, https://archive.vn/tM28L.
70
IDSA, “Herd immunity” is not the answer to a pandemic (14 October 2020). ,https://www.idsociety.org/news--publications-new/articles/2020/herd-immunity-is-not-
an-answer-to-a-pandemic/, [accessed in October 2020].
71
Archive.today, https://archive.vn/jhAX5.
72
Ibid, https://archive.vn/WosRk.
73
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/groups/724626125021877/permalink/749492419201914.
74
Ibid, https://www.facebook.com/groups/539363443394397/permalink/600752857255455.
75
76
CNN, Justice department drops criminal case against Michael Flynn (7 May 2020), https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/07/politics/michael-flynn-prosecution/index.html.
77
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1250734815048111/permalink/3020259718095603.
78
The Washington Post, Michael Flynn’s name was never masked in FBI document on his communications with Russian ambassador (20 May 2020), https://www.
washingtonpost.com/national-security/michael-flynns-name-was-never-masked-in-fbi-document-on-his-communications-with-russian-ambassador/2020/05/20/
e94ee050-9a0b-11ea-ac72-3841fcc9b35f_story.html, [accessed in October 2020].
79
NBC News, Twitter bans 7,000 QAnon accounts, limits 15,000 others as part of a broad crackdown (22 July 2020), https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/twitter-
bans-7-000-qanon-accounts-limits-150-000-others-n1234541?fbclid=IwAR1b6bwvAnCZVW5Tbx2w3BhmP8V2uLEAra2q0tMXj8lXb32GmUESLl6bIWY, [accessed o
in October 2020].
80
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/colddeadhands/posts/3185119774870211.
81
82
83
84
85
86
Amazon, Adrenochrome, https://www.amazon.com/Adrenochrome-Trevor-Simms/dp/B078WGLBLV.
87
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/LarryCook333/videos/vb.637683588/10157578367408589.
88
The Guardian, Down the rabbit hole: how QAnon conspiracies thrive on Facebook (25 June 2020), https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jun/25/qanon-
facebook-conspiracy-theories-algorithm, [accessed on 25 September 2020].
89
Twitter, https://twitter.com/stopvaccinating/status/1281042106849476608?lang=en.
90
QMap.pub.
91
Popular Information, There is no vaccine for misinformation, https://popular.info/p/there-is-no-vaccine-for-misinformation?no_cover=true, [accessed on 19
November 2020].
92
Amelia M. Jamison, David A. Broniatowski, Mark Dredze, Zach Wood-Doughty, DureAden Khan, Sandra Crouse Quinn, Vaccine-related advertising in the Facebook Ad
Archive, Vaccine, Volume 38, Issue 3, 2020, Pages 512-520, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X1931446X?via%3Dihub#!.
93
Facebook, Supporting public health experts’ vaccine efforts (13 October 2020), https://about.fb.com/news/2020/10/supporting-public-health-experts-vaccine-
efforts/, [accessed in October 2020].
94
Stop Mandatory Vaccination, https://www.stopmandatoryvaccination.com/personal-choice/zeolite-heavy-metal-detox-solutions/.
95
Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/shop/stopmandatoryvaccination.
96
n80, donate.
97
98
NewsGuard, Special Report: QAnon in Europe, https://www.newsguardtech.com/special-report-qanon/.[accessed on 15 September 2020].
99
Politico, QAnon goes European (23 October 2020), https://www.politico.eu/article/qanon-europe-coronavirus-protests/, [accessed on 23 October 2020].
100
Bild, After the nervous battle for billions to go shopping (22 July 2020), https://www.bild.de/politik/2020/politik/bundeskanzlerin-angela-merkel-nach-dem-eu-gipfel-
zum-einkaufen-72007298.bild.html, [accessed on 14 October 2020].
101
Reuters, Fact check: Altered photo shows ankle monitor on Hillary Clinton (17 August 2020), https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-altered-photo-hillary-clint-
idUSKCN25D1V7, [accessed on 14 October 2020].
102
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/wilma.wittek/posts/3068699863184325.
103
Reuters, Fact check: 35,000 “malnourished” and “caged” children were not recently rescued from tunnels by US military (15 June 2020), https://www.reuters.com/
article/uk-factcheck-children-rescued-tunnels-idUSKBN23M2EL, [accessed on 13 October 2020].
104
YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/user/acmg28/videos.
105
Ibid, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_a2ID-VgiU
106
HuffPost, What is the ‘Penis Facial’ that Sandra Bullock gets? (22 May 2018), huffpost.com/entry/penis-facial_n_5b02df5be4b0463cdba4a6fa, [accessed on 13
October 2020].
107
YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63TjIfN76Xs.
108
BBC news, What’s behind the rise of QAnon in the UK? (12 October 2020), https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-54065470, [accessed on 13 October 2020].
109
Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/100025503532702/videos/677737859752992/.
110
Special Report: QAnon in Europe, n98.
111
Time, Conspiracy Theories, http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1860871_1860876_1861029,00.html, [accessed in October 2020].
112
Archive.today, https://archive.vn/dSGlT.
113
AP, Twitter says it’s cracking down on QAnon conspiracy theories (22 July 2020), https://apnews.com/article/technology-hong-kong-general-news-featured-business-
66151ad1c38ee6715e15d9775c7a3888, [accessed on 13 November 2020].
114
New York Times, TikTok cracks down on QAnon and hate speech (21 October 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/technology/tiktok-qanon.html,
[accessed on 13 November 2020].
115
Archive.today, https://archive.vn/NPmO2.
116
117
Special Report: QAnon in Europe, n98.
QAnon and Facebook
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The Boom

Before the Ban:

About this report About NewsGuard

About the authors Acknowledgements

Kendrick McDonald is Senior Analyst and Deputy

Sarah Brandt is Vice President of News Literacy

About This Report  2

– Other types of websites  42

What does this all mean?

Following our data collection, on 6 October 2020

Methodology Keyword collection

Month Average posts per day Month-on-month increase

Save The Children

Connecting elites to sex-trafficking crimes

Post Title Group/Page: Shares

#epsteindidntkillhimself #PizzaGate and The Pedophilia Tupac’s Killuminati Soldiers of

This is the effects of Satanic Ritual Abuse [SRA] and

PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW! Prince Andrew was close with

Adrenochrome is a chemical compound created by the oxidation of adrenaline.

1. Video: “COVID 911 – Insurgency”

Page/Group Name: Date Shares

Page/Group Name: Date Shares

Page/Group Name: Date Shares

Page/Group Name: Date Shares

Page/Group Name: Date Shares

Most shared domains/links

Number of posts Number of shares of NewsGuard

Number of posts containing Percentage of posts

Number of shares of posts Percentage of shares of

1. The Gateway Pundit (Established Misinformer)

A partisan conervative website that Does not repeatedly Website discloses

theories, and unsubstantiated claims, Gathers and presents Clearly labels

2. HumorousMathematics.com (Fringe Misinformer)

A website promoting debunked Does not repeatedly Website discloses

3. QNation.us (Fringe Misinformer)

A website dedicated to the baseless Does not repeatedly Website discloses

also published false information Gathers and presents Clearly labels

Reveals who’s in charge,

4. UncoverDC.com (Fringe Misinformer)

A right-wing news and commentary Does not repeatedly Website discloses

5. TheFederalist.com (Established Misinformer)

An anonymously owned website Does not repeatedly Website discloses

or misleading information in Gathers and presents Clearly labels

Reveals who’s in charge,

Total number of TheFederalist.com links in the data set: 303.

supposed attempt to undermine Trump.

1. The New York Times (nytimes.com)

The website of a New York-based Does not repeatedly Website discloses

worldwide whose coverage exerts Gathers and presents Clearly labels

dedicated to news, which pioneered Gathers and presents Clearly labels

Reveals who’s in charge,

3. NBC News (nbcnews.com)

Reveals who’s in charge,

Other types of websites

“Alternative” platforms used by extremists:

Domains Count Unique links Shares

The newsletter Popular Information reported

Cook’s transformation into a QAnon advocate is

Why the international spread?

About This Report 2

– Other types of websites 42