Key QAnon influencer hosts Missouri AG to promote case that has limited government’s ability to discuss misinformation with tech platforms

On August 1 and 2, QAnon influencer Tracy “Beanz” Diaz, who was a key figure behind the conspiracy theory’s spread on social media, hosted Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and allowed him to promote the case Missouri v. Biden, which has resulted in a judge barring President Joe Biden’s administration from interacting with social media platforms regarding possible misinformation.

Diaz was reportedly one of the three key figures who popularized QAnon online and organized a 2018 QAnon rally in Washington, D.C. 

On July 4, a federal judge issued an injunction in Missouri v. Biden, barring the federal government from contacting platforms and asking to remove misinformation. The judge in the case, which focuses on whether the government is constitutionally allowed to contact social media platforms to request removal of alleged misinformation, repeated right-wing claims that social media platforms have censored conservative voices — which have been repeatedly debunked. An appeals court has currently stayed that injunction.

Diaz hosted Bailey for an August 1 interview on Twitter Spaces — which has become a popular place for previously suspended accounts that owner Elon Musk reinstated, including Diaz, to spread misinformation on the platform. During the interview, Bailey told Diaz that the lawsuit was “the most important First Amendment suit in at least a generation,” and Diaz said she had been “kind of pounding the pavement” regarding the lawsuit.