QAnon Research: June 14, 2022
QAnon returns to the news media, plus a sample of eclectic journal publications
QAnon in the News
QAnon is making headlines again, so this week we included a small selection of recent publications that touch upon recent discoveries, mysteries, and concerns concerning QAnon. There’s also been a major influx in QAnon-related journal publications, more than are captured here, but this hopefully this selection touches upon a variety of methods and themes in academic approaches to QAnon. Happy reading!
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QAnon in the News
QAnon’s Chief Enabler Ran a Website Where He Brushed Off Concerns About Pedophilic Content [Link]
Ali Breland in Mother Jones
We Tried to Solve the Mystery of the QAnon Postcards Flooding American Mailboxes [Link]
David Gilbert in Vice
False QAnon Conspiracies Keep Emerging in Politics: What to Watch Out For [Link]
Oscar Gonzalez in CNET
This QAnon Leader Could Control Key Elections in 2024 [Link]
Will Sommer in The Daily Beast
Publications
“Authoritarian Politics and Conspiracy Fictions: The Case of QAnon” in Humanities [Link]
Helen Young and Geoff M. Boucher
Abstract: The hypothesis of this article is that, for its adherents, QAnon is truthful, rather than true; that is, it captures their perception of the way things typically happen, rather than picturing what really has happened—and it does this in a way that seems more vivid and complete than actual experience. Why that is the case can be explained in terms of the peculiar nature of fictional representations, combined with the capacity of imaginary worlds, to symbolize real-world concerns in ways that resonate with prejudices and preconceptions but escape direct censure. After reviewing the literature on the conspiracy movement, we argue for QAnon as a conspiracy story, rather than a conspiracy theory, and interpret that story as “structured like a fantasy”, giving imaginative expression to a set of social feelings and normative grievances that would otherwise not dare speak their own names. We conclude that QAnon is an authoritarian fiction centered on anti-Semitic conspiracy beliefs that disturbingly reprise key themes of fascism, but that it presents this within the symbolic disguise of a fantasy scenario that is calculated to attract alienated white, middle-class and working-class, individuals. This argument helps explicate adherents’ resistance to the falsification of Q claims and predictions.
“Demonic and Divine Attributions around COVID-19 Vaccines: Links with Vaccine Attitudes and Behaviors, QAnon and Conspiracy Beliefs, Anger, Spiritual Struggles, Religious and Political Variables, and Supernatural and Apocalyptic Beliefs” in Religions [Link]
Julie J. Exline, Kathleen C. Pait, Joshua A. Wilt, and William A. Schutt
Abstract: Given the prevalence of supernatural beliefs in the United States, some people may believe that God or the devil influenced people to create or receive COVID-19 vaccines. In an Internet sample of 3196 U.S. adults (with many preregistered hypotheses), divine vaccine attributions were more common than demonic attributions. Demonic vaccine attributions were linked with more anti-vaccination attitudes and lower odds of vaccination, whereas divine attributions showed the opposite pattern. Demonic (but not divine) attributions showed consistent positive connections with conspiracy beliefs (including QAnon), anger toward people and organizations seen as pro-vaccine, and seeing one’s political opponents as enemies and as evil. Demonic attributions were also linked with more anxiety, depression, and spiritual struggle, and lower agreeableness and social desirability. Both demonic and divine attributions related positively to political conservatism, religious fundamentalism, Christian nationalism, authoritarian aggression, and traditional masculinity beliefs. Demonic (but not divine) attributions were also associated with being younger and having less education. Both demonic and divine vaccine attributions correlated positively with religiousness, belief in God and the devil, and seeing these entities as powerful, able to work through natural events, and intervening often in the world. Demonic and divine attributions also related positively to belief in heaven and hell, seeing many people as destined for hell, seeing life as a cosmic battle between good and evil, and apocalyptic or “end times” beliefs.
“Validating and Testing a Measure of Anti-Semitism on Support for QAnon and Vote Intention for Trump in 2020” in Social Science Quarterly [Link]
Ines Levin, Alexandra Filindra, and Jeffrey S. Kopstein
Abstract: Objective: Knowledge on anti-semitism and its effects as an attitude is limited. We seek to assess its relationship with other out-group measures and its predictive ability on political judgments. We seek to (a) study the properties of a measure of anti-semitism; (b) explore the relationship between anti-semitism and other frequently used measures of out-group attitudes; (c) assess the key demographic predictors of endorsement of anti-semitic beliefs; (d) evaluate the predictive ability of our measure of anti-semitism in models predicting support for the QAnon conspiracy theory and vote for Trump in the 2020 election. Data and Methods: This study utilizes two national online surveys fielded in January and August 2020 that are weighted to match the U.S. population. We utilize a Bayesian factor analytic approach to assess the relationship between various out-group measures. We also use regression analyses to predict the correlates of anti-semitism and to test the relationship between anti-semitism and support for QAnon and for Trump. Results: Our results show that anti-semitism shares more variance with xenophobia than anti-black prejudice suggesting that people tend to perceive Jews as national outsiders not as racial others. Furthermore, anti-semitism is a strong positive predictor of both support for QAnon and intent to vote for Donald Trump.
“Finding Qs: Profiling QAnon Supporters on Parler” in arXiv [Link]
Dominik Bär, Nicolas Pröllochs, and Stefan Feuerriegel
Abstract: The social media platform "Parler" has emerged into a prominent fringe community where a significant part of the user base are self-reported supporters of QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory alleging that a cabal of elites controls global politics. QAnon is considered to have had an influential role in the public discourse during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. However, little is known about QAnon supporters on Parler and what sets them aside from other users. Building up on social identity theory, we aim at profiling the characteristics of QAnon supporters on Parler. We analyze a large-scale dataset with more than 600,000 profiles of English-speaking users on Parler. Based on users' profiles, posts, and comments, we then extract a comprehensive set of user features, linguistic features, network features, and content features. This allows us to perform user profiling and understand to what extent these features discriminate between QAnon and non-QAnon supporters on Parler. Our analysis is three-fold: (1) We quantify the number of QAnon supporters on Parler, finding that 34,913 users (5.5% of all users) openly report to support the conspiracy. (2) We examine differences between QAnon vs. non-QAnon supporters. We find that QAnon supporters differ statistically significantly from non-QAnon supporters across multiple dimensions. For example, they have, on average, a larger number of followers, followees, and posts, and thus have a large impact on the Parler network. (3) We use machine learning to identify which user characteristics discriminate QAnon from non-QAnon supporters. We find that user features, linguistic features, network features, and content features, can - to a large extent - discriminate QAnon vs. non-QAnon supporters on Parler. In particular, we find that user features are highly discriminatory, followed by content features and linguistic features.
“No Calm in the Storm: Investigating QAnon Website Relationships” in Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media [Link]
Hans W. A. Hanley, Deepak Kumar, and Zakir Durumeric
Abstract: QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory whose followers largely organize online. In this work, we use web crawls seeded from two of the largest QAnon hotbeds on the Internet, Voat and 8kun, to build a QAnon-centered domain-based hyperlink graph. We use this graph to identify, understand, and learn about the set of websites that spread QAnon content online. Specifically, we curate the largest list of QAnon centered websites to date, from which we document the types of QAnon sites, their hosting providers, as well as their popularity. We further analyze QAnon websites' connection to mainstream news and misinformation online, highlighting the outsized role misinformation websites play in spreading the conspiracy. Finally, we leverage the observed relationship between QAnon and misinformation sites to build a highly accurate random forest classifier that distinguishes between misinformation and authentic news sites. Our results demonstrate new and effective ways to study the growing presence of conspiracy theories and misinformation on the Internet.
Events
Webinar: Live-streaming of Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content: Moderation and Crisis Response [Link]
When: June 23rd, 2022, 12pm ET / 11am CT / 10am MT / 9am PT
Registration: Online
As per the website, “For our June webinar of the 2022 Tech Against Terrorism & GIFCT e-Learning series, we take an in-depth look into how terrorist and violent extremist actors use livestreaming to increase the strategic and operational value of propaganda. Since the attack in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019, the appeal of livestreaming an attack has increased for terrorist and violent extremist actors, especially among far-right terrorists and violent extremists. The tech sector response to livestreamed attacks has also grown significantly, resulting in Twitch removing the livestream of the attack in Buffalo, New York, USA within 2 minutes in May 2022. In this webinar, we will discuss how terrorist and violent extremist actors use livestreaming functions to gain notoriety for their attack. We will also discuss the challenges identifying and moderating livestreamed content, and effective crisis responses, while safeguarding human rights and freedom of expression.”
Call for Papers
International Journal of Creative Media Research Special Issue: Making and Faking the News [Link]
Abstracts due September 16th, 2022.
As per the website: This special edition of the International Journal of Creative Media Research asks how practice research might enable fresh perspectives on the construction and critique of fake news (both contemporary and historical examples). In what ways can artists, designers and moving image makers interrogate fake news’ histories, political and emotional impact and signifying power? How might practitioners confront fake news’ significance within the communication wars, or unpack its “creative” (disingenuous) treatment of reality? Can practitioners examine questions of epistemology (what is knowledge? what is true or false?) using methodologies that are different to traditional theorists’ and thereby help define what should stand in contrast or in opposition to fake news?
Social Media + Society Special Issue: Semantic Media [Link]
Abstracts due July 15th, 2022
As per the website: This special issue focuses on “semantic media,” which we define as media technologies that primarily orchestrate and convey facts, answers, meanings, and “knowledge” about things directly in media products, rather than lead people to other sources. Search engines and virtual assistants respond directly to questions based on textual or verbal searches (e.g., “Things to do in Philadelphia?” or “What is the capital of Israel?”). The special issue is thus dedicated to the often-invisible ways (to the non-specialist) that internet companies are now actively involved in constructing “knowledge” about the world. Organizations like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon extract, curate, and store facts served to users in new and emerging media products. Such processes have significant implications for the politics of knowledge sharing in the future.
Fan Studies Network 2022 Virtual Conference: Inside Voices [Link]
Abstracts due August 1st, 2022
As per the website: As much as fandom is about how we feel, it doesn’t just live in our heads or separate from the rest of our lives. Instead, it spills out into the spaces where we live and work, as posters on bedroom walls, shelves of books, records, movies, or games, and collections of merchandise and memorabilia. For the last two years, many of us have spent more time at home due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In doing so, we might have gained new perspectives on the personal, everyday spaces where fandom often “happens,” or seen novel ways in which fandom interests and fannish identities cross over into the other everyday activities now taking place in those same spaces. This year, we hope to explore the relationships between spaces–online and offline, private and public–that shape our fandom experiences.