Trump allies banned from Twitter still spreading QAnon, election fraud conspiracies there

They’re banned but not gone.

Key allies of former president Donald Trump, who were expelled from Twitter after the Capitol riot, are still getting their messages heard there.

Trump lawyers Lin Wood and Sidney Powell and pardoned former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who pushed unsubstantiated claims of election fraud before being suspended, remain popular on Twitter through thousands of daily mentions, according to a new report shared exclusively with USA TODAY.

The three loom so large on the social media platform that they continue to drive more QAnon and other conspiracy-laden conversations than Twitter account holders with large followings, Advance Democracy found. 

On average, Wood continues to be mentioned 2,397 times a day on Twitter, Powell 1,091 times and Flynn 206 times, the research organization that studies disinformation and extremism said.

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This Twitter afterlife is fueled, in part, by the feedback loop that links mainstream social media to alternative conversation hubs with looser content moderation.

Supporters post Wood and Powell messages from Rumble and other platforms, allowing them to “evade their bans and continue to spread dangerous lies about the election,” said Daniel Jones, president of Advance Democracy. 

Wood, for example, has racked up millions of views on the alternative video hosting site Rumble for videos pushing QAnon and election conspiracy theories that falsely claim that the U.S. government has been infiltrated by a ring of demonic pedophiles and that Trump will be inaugurated on March 4, the report found.

Videos posted on Facebook, such as an appearance on a QAnon talk show in which Wood claims “the inauguration was taped in advance,” and that the military has an “obligation to take control of our government because it is being seized by an illegal administration,” still fetch hundreds of thousands of views.

“Twitter and Facebook took action long after far-right conspiracy theorists spread their lies, and, to a large extent, it was too late,” Jones said. “Lin Wood, Sydney Powell, and Michael Flynn have already established a supporter base on these platforms that continue to amplify their messaging.”

Twitter cracked down on accounts linked to QAnon followed the mob attack on the Capitol stoked by Trump.

Overall mentions of Wood, Powell, and Flynn decreased significantly after their accounts were banned, according to the report.

For example, Wood had 99,540 mentions on Twitter between Dec. 18 and Jan. 6, and 81,754 mentions between Jan. 7 and Jan. 25, a decline of nearly 18%. His Twitter account was suspended on Jan. 7.

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Mentions of Powell, who was banned on Jan. 8, slipped 43% to 33,755 between the two time periods. Flynn experienced the most dramatic falloff, with mentions plunging 80% to 51,472 from 269,525 after his account was deleted on Jan. 8.

Yet these figures have retained significant sway on mainstream social media, according to the Advance Democracy report. 

For example, between Jan. 7 and Jan. 25, Powell was mentioned with “stop the steal” or “stopthesteal” 9.5 times more often than conservative activist Charlie Kirk, 7.7 times more often than conservative commentator Dan Bongino and 5 times more often than Donald Trump Jr. 

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