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A strange Internet phenomenon, in which the best academics try to find solutions and answers.
In the conspiracy mire that spreads alongside the Covid-19 epidemic, the haunting nebula of QAnon conspiracy theories is slowly and insidiously making its way to Europe, exploiting fears created by the health crisis.
The phenomenon, well known in the United States, remains marginal in Europe, but in recent months it has been overpromoted. Nebula’s conspiracy theories have penetrated social media, which is its breeding ground, but its slogans were also heard during recent anti-sanitation protests in Germany, London and Paris.
“QAnon’s conspiracy theories are spreading in Europe,” where the pandemic “served as a catalyst,” said a report in late July by Newsguard, a news analyst.
“The period of uncertainty, the climate of stress, is fertile ground,” said a French government source, referring to an “extreme and ideological deviation.”
The QAnon theory, the name comes from Q, a mysterious public official who is supposed to fight to thwart the conspiracy, complains that the United States is run by dark forces, who are involved in international pedophile networks and seek to establish a new one. world order “.
Only President Donald Trump, who, after all, never rejected the QAnon Nebula, was able to defeat this conspiracy!
“Very US-centric at the beginning, this theory adapts very easily to local problems,” explains Chine Labbé, Newsguard’s European division director.
QAnon’s websites in Europe appeared in late 2019 and early 2020, but their traffic soared with the pandemic and the shutdown of Covid-19, it notes.
Newsguard, which surveyed QAnon sites, pages and accounts in the UK, Germany, France and Italy, had around 450,000 followers or members at the end of July.
“But their traffic continues to grow exponentially, at a very rapid rate,” warns Chine Labbé, citing, for example, a French YouTube channel, DeQodeurs, which launched in April and had 21,500 subscribers on July 31. 68,500 at the beginning of September.
Initially confined to confidential sites or restricted after thousands of Facebook and Twitter accounts were banned, QAnon’s theory is spreading to popular disinformation sites in Europe and to local groups.
It adapts to political realities, such as in France and Germany, where Emanuel Macron and Angela Merkel appear as “pawns” of the “deep state.”
This ease of adjustment allows you to increase your visibility. “QAnon is a conspiracy theory sponge. Everything fits together. From anti-Semitic theories to 5G and masks, to science fiction … the absorption spectrum is huge” and the different conspiracy theories feed off each other, according to Tristan Mendes France, who teaches digital cultures at his university. Paris.
“But the strong point of this imaginary construction is that it is based on crime against children. “If you question their fight, you support pedophilia.”
“Instead of dealing with those who oppose masks, dealing with pedophile networks, with pedophile doctors,” a French doctor told reporters on her Facebook page, for example.
Some “celebrities” in Europe advertised QAnon positions, such as German singer Xavier Naidoo or Attila Hildmann, a vegan chef who took part in the anti-mask protests in Berlin in early September.
In the UK, singer Robbie Williams in June adopted the Pizzagate theory, a precursor to QAnon, that a pizzeria in Washington serves as a hiding place for an elite Democratic pedophile …
Concerns
Bridges with experts on far-right concerns. This is a reality in Germany, where the theory is gaining ground among extremists who oppose the reception of immigrants and followers of the Great Replacement theory, says researcher Miro Dittrich.
“The relationship between the conspiracy theories and the far-right scene is unfortunately reasonable, because they share several theories,” he says.
In France, for example, the QAnon theory was spread through the channel of a far-right Quebec conspiracy theorist, Alexis Cossette.
In the United States, the QAnon nebula is considered by the FBI as a potential terrorist threat, and in Europe it must be monitored, says the researcher, who is concerned about the heat and the extreme positions of some.
“There are patients, but there are worrying signs,” said Andrea Palladino, a journalist for the Italian Espresso, which investigates accounts related to QAnon in Italy and points to some “particularly worrying” posts about the need for weapons.
However, says Chine Labbé, “there are all sorts of followers of the QAnon theory, and there are also people who adopt theories without malicious intent, who sometimes ask reasonable questions about the epidemic.”
“There are those who are completely in a frenzy, those who ride the wave and, without a doubt, those who have a political agenda, although it is difficult to separate them. The phenomenon may or may not disappear. “The dramatic thing would be the exploitation of these types of currents by political parties,” warns the French government source.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
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