After more than a year of silence, the mysterious figure behind the QAnon conspiracy theory has resurfaced.
The figure, known only as Q, posted for the first time in more than a year on Friday 8kun, the anonymous message board where the account last appeared. “Shall we play the game again?” a message read in the account’s typical cryptic style. The account that posted had a unique identifier that was used in previous Q messages.
The reports surprised disinformation researchers and signaled the ominous return of a figure whose conspiracy theories about an imaginary ring of elite sex traffickers garnered support for then-President Donald J. Trump. Message boards and Telegram channels devoted to QAnon lit up the news, as followers speculated on the significance of Q’s return.
The QAnon conspiracy theory surfaced in late 2017 from anonymous message boards where it quickly appealed to a large number of Trump supporters. Q published a series of cryptic posts about toppling an elite “clique” of sex traffickers. Supporters believed that Q had a role in the Trump administration or the military and that Mr. Trump was in the process of arresting and prosecuting child molesters and Democrats.
The move appeared to culminate in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Some of the people who stormed the building were wearing QAnon T-shirts or holding signs that read “Q sent me.” Polls around that time showed that one in five Americans believed the conspiracy theory.
When President Biden was sworn in, it seemed clear that none of Q’s most fantastic and horrifying predictions — about Mr Trump’s arrest and trial of Democrats in a series of military tribunals and public executions — would come true. Q’s account stopped posting shortly after Mr Trump’s defeat in 2020.
As the QAnon community has stumbled in the months since Q’s disappearance, the past week has seemed to be teeming again with a series of groundbreaking Supreme Court rulings, culminating on Friday with a decision that ended the constitutional right to abortion. For QAnon supporters, the decision marked a turning point for the country that could make Q’s predictions a reality.
“Taking advantage of social and cultural instability has long been a hallmark of QAnon,” said Bond Benton, an associate professor at Montclair State University who has studied QAnon. “This really adds fuel to the fire and taps into the fear people have about the future.”
When an anonymous user on 8kun asked why Q was gone for so long, the account replied, “It had to be done this way.”
The account posted a third time, writing, “Are you ready to serve your country again? Remember your oath.”
The return comes at an important time for one of QAnon’s leading figures: Ron Watkins, a computer programmer in his thirties and a former administrator of 8kun who is widely believed to be the person behind Q. An HBO documentary linked him to the account, and two forensic analyzes showed empirical similarities in their writing style.
Mr. Watkins makes a long-term bid for a congressional seat in Arizona’s second district. Strategists in the state expect him to lose the race when the primaries are held on Aug. 2 after he raised little money and delivered an awkward debate performance that failed to gain Republican support.
Mr Watkins has denied having any involvement with Q. He did not immediately submit a request for comment on Saturday.
Daniela Peterka-Benton, an associate professor at Montclair State University who has also studied QAnon, warned against ascribing too much logic to Q’s return now, suggesting that the person’s goal is simply to “make the world to see it burn”.
“I don’t think this person has a plan,” she said. “But I think they really enjoy having that much power.”
