As if there wasn’t enough reason to be concerned about QAnon’s growing following, here’s another. It looks like Russia sees this as another opportunity to sow discord in our country.
Academics who study QAnon said there were no signs Russia had a hand in the early days of the movement, which launched in 2017 with anonymous web postings amplified by YouTube videos.
But as QAnon gained adherents and took on new topics - with President Donald Trump as the constant hero waging a misunderstood battle - social media accounts tied to a key Kremlin ally joined in.
In 2019, accounts removed by Twitter and suspected of being controlled by Russia’s Internet Research Agency sent a high volume of tweets tagged with #QAnon and the movement slogan #WWG1WGA, short for Where We Go One, We Go All, said Melanie Smith, head of analysis at social media analysis firm Graphika.
Ah, yes, the IRA—the same outfit that operated the massive stable of trollfarms that wreaked so much havoc on social media in 2016.
It also looks like RT and Sputnik News have gotten in on the act as well. For instance, when Twitter nuked a bunch of pro-QAnon accounts, RT warned that it could potentially backfire since it gave QAnon supporters “the validation they craved.” It expressed a similar sentiment when Facebook nuked several pro-QAnon groups.
According to Graphika’s research, QAnon’s followers have developed a particular fondness for RT stories, since RT cast QAnon as “channeling legitimate outrage.” Among the pro-QAnon accounts tracked by Graphika, RT was the 12th-most shared site.
So it looks like Russia has found another outlet to hack us. And at best, that makes Liz Crokin and other QAnon kooks useful idiots.
