QAnon Goes Underground

tied to Q and On. We heard how many Q followers literally posted footage of themselves committing federal crimes on social media, often even using Q and on hashtags and mottoes such as where we go One, we Go All and hashtag us the Plan. After it was clear that the Capitol Building rioters were in deep shit and largely connected to Q, major social media companies launched a sweeping

set of restrictions against anyone promoting Q and on. Specifically, the major players were banned, deleted, and removed from platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Of course, these tech giants made themselves out to be holier than thou by doing this. But don't forget they allowed Q and on to thrive before deciding to collectively take action. But take action they did. Some of the largest Q and on

personalities had hundreds of thousands of followers. They lost their accounts overnight, and so did the most vocal Q and ons on social media, even if they only had a small following. So within the space of eight weeks, Q vanished, posting his last drop on December eight, Trump lost the election, and Q and ons were removed from social media. At this point when it was absolutely clear that Qu's plan was all a hoax. The plan was never gonna happen.

Many Q and On's lost faith. We'll talk about that in another episode, but today we're focusing on the t and On's that didn't lose faith, the ones who doubled down. They refused to accept the feet, and ironically, they then found themselves in the perfect spot to take their conspiracy theories to new levels of absolute madness. Banished from all the mainstream social media sites, Q followers locked to the

instant messaging app Telegram. Essentially, they went underground. It's here where Q and on has taken on a new, even stranger form. Now, before we go into that, first, let's talk about Telegram. You might use it yourself. I do, most journalists have it. It's a lot like WhatsApp, but the sales pitch amongst users is often that it's more cryptographically secure. It's also not owned by Facebook, as WhatsApp is, and therefore it isn't in favor of deeply on democratic

censorship like Facebook is. Now. Because of this, there have been some extremely over dramatic takes written about Telegram. Some journalists have even claimed it's an app for the far right. That's really not quite accurate. As I've said, Telegram is a messaging app where you can create your own channels or groups, which basically like chat rooms. You can add people, people can subscribe, you can broadcast information, or you can allow everyone to talk whatever however you want to do it,

There are many options. Telegram, for the most part, adheres to free speech in an absolutist kind of way and is therefore pretty much open to everyone. There are very few rules. Really. Now, does that mean that neo Nazis, racists and other horrific scumbags can use this app? Yes? And if that shocks you. All I can say is welcome to the Internet. Telegram is not, however, only used by the worst people in our society, those people I just mentioned. Telegram is also used by activists living in

authoritarian regimes and a kiss militant groups. I follow a group of them. I've seen them on there a few times. Journalists throughout the world, loads all over the place putting in information. There were news aggregators, leftist media organizations, many, many varying different people and facets of society are using Telegram. Telegram is simply a tool, and as I mentioned, it's one Q and On's when absolutely wild with and they still are now. Trust me, I do not work for Telegram.

I don't particularly care about Telegram who runs it. I just wanted to get that out of the way so people understand that this is just a messaging app that was already there. The Q and Ons they migrated onto it because you know, when they were kicked off of social media, they needed a place to go. So many different channels popped up on Telegram to take on what we're in a way que and on refugees if you like.

I saw a few of them referring to themselves as that, which, depending on some of their political views, is quite ironic. They needed to the somewhere, though, and they wanted to talk to each other, talk about the plan. Keep it moving now. I've been following a few of these channels, and to give you an idea of what they're about, here's some content from one that has over one and ten thousand subscribers. Brace yourself for this. This is pretty

much a standard message from this group. By the way, it's wild, okay, so quote President Trump, Pompeo, Miller, Coms and more popcorn emoji. Trump's statement on Afghanistan troops plus decode follow the money zero day. The time has come to take back our country. What is mill intel fees a gate coming very soon to a fear near you? Rats running timing is everything. Enjoy the show. Trump's statement on terrorism plus decode Cuomo equals murderer, voter ideal or

will be mandated? Who fun isis HRC connected? Biden equals cheatah what must be done first? Muslim brotherhood is not the same thing as Islam. Pompeo to a right to bear arms tweet ts ten eleven Q ten eleven gun

control coincidence. Miller Queen tweet t S one zero zero Q one d who is the Queen of England, secret Society, Evil Satan who follows spirit cooking represent Lynn Wood Cue is the truth Trump, It's going to take a little while to show pertaining to showing Pedo Biden's anti American policies. I didn't fun help by the way, that's exactly how it's written there. Very weird, Flynn. We need to renew our faith in God. The truth is going to come out,

Ben Carson. We need to have strong beliefs to whether the storm that's coming, keep the faith we will win. End quote and breathe. As you can see, it is absolute madness, but this does make sense to the people in the group. Along with this message is over ten different images and videos. The images are mostly screenshots from various different que drops and Trump's statements. On the screenshot, someone has tried to decode secret messages that are clearly

not there. There are arrows of different colors pointing here, there, and everywhere. There are numbers, labels. Is all a massive mess It's like Robert Langdon on meth and fair amine. But a lot of them are still going along with this. There are many comments on this saying yeah, we're gonna win where we go, one we go all we know the truth, that sort of thing they think. They're still moving ahead with the so called plan. Being on telegram has effectively lead the most hardcore of the hardcore Q

and Ons to each other all in one place. Something interesting that seems to be happening now as well is how they're all being coaxed into even more extremist ideologies on telegram. Actual neo Nazis are coordinating with each other and infiltrating Q and on Telegram group chats, trying to push a more extremist ideology in the midst of the madness of Q. I spoke to an independent researcher and journalist named Matt Taylor who has been investigating various far

right groups on telegram. He's witnessed firsthand how they're trying to turn Q and On's into something even more grotesque. Basically, you've seen like more far right groups kind of what trying to recruit from Q and on or what like

what are they doing? I think they're from what I'm seeing, it looks like they're either trying to recruit from Q and On or use Q and on as a sort of vehicle for accelerationism, specifically the groups I monitor on there they are accelerationists in nature and they see Q and on. So they see Q and on as a larp basically, right, Um, Like, they see it as nonsense and they see it as sort of a just a way that's like creating even more I guess diversion amongst

the right. So you mean like these these more hardline far right groups, they look at Q and on they're like, these people are idiots, but we can use it to our advantage of basically yeah, yeah, exactly that they I mean, they even they'll say it. They're like, yeah, it's absolutely a psio, but we can use this. And how do they use it? They use it by going in like you'll see, um, one of the members of the Chats forward a Q and on group and be like, hey, guys,

let's go in here. Look at what I said here about Jewish people. Let's really try to push that point. Like, so they're really trying to push the anti Semitism even further. And also like Holocaust denial, praise for Hitler, pretty much anything in that sort of vein. They're really trying to push that in these groups. And I think it's easier for them to do it on Telegram because there's not really a there's not really a risk of getting banned, you know, Like on Facebook, it would be really hard

for them to do that because groups get banned very quickly. UM. And videos and articles and all that stuff about like Holocaust denial UM usually at least from what I've seen, get banned pretty quickly. Yeah. I mean they're going in there too for infiltration purposes, just to like, like I said, whether it be or whether it be for a recruitment, or just to like further like poke and prod Q

and On into acting on some of these beliefs and everything. Yeah, And how effective are they that you seeing Q and On pushing back saying no, you know it because a lot of Q and On, you know, as insane as they were and as right wing as they were, they won't all far right or racist at the start, you know, as much as the media wanted to portray them as that, they a lot of them actually won't. You know, they're very lost, in my opinion, but they weren't all racists

and stuff like that. Um. Are you seeing like pushback from them or are they kind of getting with it now? Things are getting a little bit more bizarre in the ideology. There's pushback in these channels, but I mean there's also people saying like, oh, can you send me more resources on that? That's really interesting. I've never thought of that before.

I think that's a pretty dangerous place to get into because they are taking like somebody will drop in a a bit shoot link to like a Hitler documentary and say, hey, you know Hitler is not the bad guy or wasn't the bad guy here? He was actually doing good, And you know, some people will be like, well, no, he was terrible, And then other people are like, wait, wait, wait a second, I want to get can I see some more information on that? Like that's kind of iopenning,

and that's I don't know. I just think that's a very dangerous place or to the ant because it's you know, not they're not accepting it, but they're not necessarily rejecting it either, and that's a slippery place to be, you know. Yeah, I think I think not completely immediately rejecting Nazism is quite a step towards it exactly. And it's um I think The issue with Q and On being on telegram is I mean not to say that the anti Semitism

hasn't always been there. It's you know, it's always been there in some degree, but it seems more pronounced, at least from my point of view, on telegram. As like I said, they don't have to worry about that band. But one of these groups I monitor, one of these like blatantly far right, like neo Nazi groups, were like, hey, guys, go into this Q and on channel right now. They're so demoralized you can pretty much say whatever you want.

They're not going to push back. He's like, I've been saying too semitic stuff all day long and they're not pushing back at all. It's great. And it's not just like they're not just doing it on telegram right Like I'll see um like even like Pole on four Chune, like the poll board, like they'll they'll be like, hey, guys, I posted this and this guy replied this. Can you guys help me come up with a reply to him

to try to like pill this guy even further. And so you'll have like two or three people be like, hey, you should say this, or you should say this. And it kind of like create this like Frankenstein's monster of a response and put it on the board or whatever, and they do the same thing, and the Q and On chats as well. Um, So that's that's the thing to consider. When you see like somebody say something like super anty semitic or like full on like Nazi talking points,

it might not just be from that one person. It might be from like a few people kind of collaborating on a response. So it seems that now Q and on is going to underground. It's being infiltrated by people who want to make it more extreme. Out of sight, out of mind. For some however, this could have a potentially catastrophic reaction later down the road. What's more, the Q and On ideology is evolving or devolving, depending on

how you look at it. Since Trump lost the election, they've sort of broken off into two separate but also sometimes converging threads of thought. On one hand, there's the stop the Steel side of things, a concept the Trump family has promoted. Stop the Steel refers to the belief that the election was stolen from Trump by a deep state operation to rig voting machines. In Joe Biden's favor.

This has been promoted heavily by eight chan's Ron Watkins, one of two men I believe was running the Q account for the most part of last year, as we documented in series one. Then, on the other hand, there's the Patriots are in control side of things. This is the theory that actually Joe Biden's victory was allowed to happen by Trump and Q. The idea is that Q

and Trump are secretly in control. They genuinely believe that the Q team is working behind the scenes allowing everything to happen as it is as a means of allowing these so called bad guys to expose their evils further. Then, they still believe Trump will swoop in and take over. They believe that only then will there be enough evidence to show everyone that Queue was right all along. Essentially, they've shifted the goalposts to convince themselves and other people

that this is all still part of the plan. They then think a new cuebact economic reform called Nassari take hold when Trump comes back. Will be covering that in detail in the future episode. One of the most add and Q and On supporters that I've been watching for years now is a man named Craig Mason. He had a large following on YouTube before his channel was shut down by them. Craig is one of the most optimistic, chirpy,

and very naive Quanns out there. Mason honestly seems like without all of this nonsense, he'd probably be a genuinely fun guy to grab a drink with. He's not as embedded in the nastiness, perhaps as many of the other Quanns are. Unfortunately, he is completely and utterly wrapped up in Q still. I watched one of his recent videos on bits you a YouTube clone that is next to no community rules. This is what he had to say on one of his live streams. This was recorded January twelve,

twenty one. He's reading an old Q drop from November one, seventeen. This is something a lot of the Q no ons are doing now that Q has vanished. They're reading over old Q drops and quote decoding them to retroactively give them meaning to what's currently happening now. So before before Trump was voted out of office, they were saying, Okay, this is what Q is saying, this is the plan that is coming up. Now they're saying, actually, Q was giving us a code to deal with ourselves once he vanishes.

When Trump is removed from office, it's quite unhinged. Have a listen. Okay, So how about this for a little potential decode action of an interesting post. If we look at this here, four carries and escorts in the Pacific, why is that relevant to prevent other state actors from attempting to harm us during this transition old transition or transitioning to a new administration, a second administration probably Trump, I think largely at the time, and everything is happening,

not increased military movement. We've seen an increase military movement. Note and g National Guard deployment is starting tomorrow. Our National Guard deployment is going to start on Wednesday. We've already seen that they're making movements in Washington, d C. Note ffs, they're trying follow humor. I don't know. Human is prepared messages of reassurance based and what was dropped here to spread in different platforms. This has got to be it, right, This has got to be it. This

has got to be it. What other timing can it be? The inauguration is in nine days, and I really think beyond that, it's got to be now Momophor procsven versus, I feel that my bones something is dropping. I could not agree more. Andy Girls says, how the heck did did you know this would all happen? I mean it is so spotted spot on it's insane. I know right, It's been planned for many years. So there we have it.

As you can hear, they are desperately holding onto this idea that Q is alive and kicking planning and will eventually turn. It's actually quite sad to listen to Q and On has not gone away. It's just gone underground, and now it's more outlandish and potentially dangerous than ever. Q Clearance is brought to you by I Heart Radio and cou Data Media. I'm Jake Hanrahan. You can find me online at Jake Underscore Hanrahan. That's h A N A h A N. This episode was produced by myself,

with fact checking and additional research by Sarah Hightower. The music is by Sam Black and the sound was mixed by Thomas Griffin. That Splicing Block unperson of and Comperton of Burton actor