Despite Crackdowns, QAnon Conspiracy Continues to Live on Alt-Tech Platforms

A large part of this split comes from QAnon’s other central figure: Trump. 

Many believers in QAnon remain steadfast in their belief that Trump won the 2020 presidential election, and some have maintained that he is secretly operating as president. When Trump announced his bid to run for the Republican nomination for president again in 2024, it undermined this theory and, according to Carusone, has resulted in considerable ridicule of QAnon among peers on alt-tech platforms. 

But much of the QAnon movement has stuck with Trump, in part because Trump has increasingly embraced it. Relegated to his own platform, Truth Social, following bans on mainstream sites like Facebook and Twitter, Trump has increasingly engaged with QAnon believers and used some of their coded language. 

“He started showing up at rallies in the lead-up to the midterm elections playing QAnon music. He started to post and identify himself as Q Plus, which is what he is in the QAnon ideology. He started sharing and reposting QAnon memes,” Bloom said. Even some suggested running mates — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser — are viewed as nods to the QAnon movement.

With Trump’s suspensions from Facebook and Twitter lifted and his return to mainstream social media expected later this year, there are concerns that he will bring back QAnon beliefs to the mainstream. 

Bloom noted that QAnon figures like Flynn have already been allowed back onto Twitter under Chief Executive Elon Musk, and crackdowns against QAnon-related content have fallen by the wayside.

“Whatever effect content moderation had on QAnon content in the last two years, it’s going to end because there is almost no content moderation now, and most of these individuals are back with a vengeance,” she said.

Carusone warned that QAnon has continued to keep a hold on mainstream platforms by using alt-tech sites as a beachhead.

“I could go to Rumble as a QAnon figure, produce videos and content that are completely and totally prohibited, then cross-posted to Facebook and have no problem having it get saturation,” he said.

Despite mainstream bans, QAnon belief has not dissipated. Awareness of QAnon among social media users has held steady since 2021, as has belief in its accuracy among the same demographic. The QAnon movement has not left, and its most prominent public figure is about to return to the mainstream and once again seek office, providing the possibility for the movement to achieve political power.

“You can’t have a drop-off for what is a fringe conspiracy if core tenets of that fringe conspiracy increasingly get moved to the centers of power,” Carusone said.