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Americans who have tend to hold it in an unfavourable light

Jan 19th 2021

WHO INSPIRED the mayhem at Americas Capitol on January 6th? Donald Trump played his part, invigorating his supporters before the riot with a baseless claim that Novembers presidential election was stolen. But Q, the person (or persons) behind the QAnon conspiracy theory, also bears much of the blame. The anonymous online figure, whose cryptic posts allege that Mr Trump is waging a covert war to save America from an elite cabal of cannibalistic paedophiles, had inspired an alarming number of the most prominent protesters. Among them was Jake Angeli, better known as the QAnon Shaman. On the day of the insurrection in Washington, DC, a shirtless Mr Angeli was seen wearing a fur hat adorned with horns and holding a sign saying Q sent me!

Yet QAnon is less well known in Trumpworld than might be expected. Although it is generally thought of as a far-right cultits adherents tend to hold dim views of prominent liberals such as Barack Obama and George Sorospolling from YouGov shows that Democrats are more aware of it than Republicans are (see chart). This is true even after controlling for differences in education. Still, the minority of Republicans who are familiar with QAnon seem to be much more supportive of it than their Democratic counterparts. Around 30% of those Republicans say they view the online movement favourably, compared with just 5% of Democrats. (The FBI has an opinion too. It has labelled QAnon a domestic terror threat.)

Facebook seems to be especially fertile ground for QAnon. YouGov also asked Americans where they got their news on election fraud. Around 25% of respondents who said their main source was Facebook also said they hold a favourable opinion of QAnon, against only 12% of people who mainly get their election-fraud news from Twitter. Facebooks design may be partly to blame. Its users primarily see posts from friends and other like-minded people, creating information bubbles where fringe views can spread. Twitter, by contrast, is somewhat closer to a public forum where users are exposed to diverse views from people they may not know or agree with. Social-media firms have recently cracked down on Q-Anon-related content. But purging the conspiracy theory entirely will be no easy task.

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Daily chart - Democrats are more likely than Republicans to have heard of QAnon | Graphic detail - The Economist