Russia Pushing QAnon Hashtags On US Social Media

August 24, 2020 Extremists, Russia

As QAnon gained adherents and took on new topics, with President Donald Trump as the constant hero waging a misunderstood battle, social media accounts controlled by a key Kremlin ally joined in. In 2019 the 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.

The company dissects propaganda campaigns and plans to publish an analysis of QAnon this week. More recently, Russian government-backed media RT.com and Sputnik have stepped up coverage of QAnon, which began with a false proclamation Hillary Clinton would be arrested for an undetermined reason and now includes theories about child trafficking by Hollywood elites, the novel coronavirus and more.

OK, so now we can assume QAnon is a Russian propaganda Op. https://t.co/vKBpUtAK1L

— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) August 19, 2020