New QAnon hitpiece from DailyDot - QAnon-themed videos flourishing on TikTok
TikTok has a QAnon problem
The conspiracy theory is growing there.
Over the last few years, social media companies have woken up to problematic beliefs on their platforms, which resulted in a wave of deplatformings, knocking off some of the biggest names in fringe beliefs and conspiracy theories.
But there is always going to be a new avenue, as apps and sites are constantly developing and riding waves of popularity.
Right now, nothing is hotter than TikTok. Naturally, conspiracy pushers have pivoted there.
Often, after a deplatforming, these people have headed neo-Nazi riddled messaging apps with no hope of developing a larger user base, such as the far-right’s mostly failed migration to encrypted messaging app Telegram, or conservative Twitter alternatives like Gab and Parler.
TikTok is nothing like these. And that could pose a problem.
TikTok is a Chinese-developed, short-form video-sharing app that became available outside that country in 2016. It exploded in popularity, adding a half-billion users in 2019, and counts 1.5 billion users overall. And like many other social platforms, that growth has come with an infiltration of conspiracy content.
Part of that is a steady increase in QAnon-related accounts, run by content makers pushing out videos in support of the violent, incoherent, yet seemingly unkillable conspiracy theory that first appeared on 4chan in 2017. The QAnon conspiracy holds that President Donald Trump is secretly rooting out a cabal of Democratic pedophiles deep within the government.
Conspiracy theorists are often fast to adapt their messages to new forms of technology and TikTok doesn’t appear to be any different.
QAnon researcher and podcast host Travis View first noted the existence of QAnon-themed TikTok accounts in September, finding two with at least something of a following: accounts that go by QTok and Andrew Barrett. At the time View found them, neither had an especially large imprint—both were under 2,000 followers—but they had fans, and their content was getting traction.
They aren’t small anymore, though, as noted in a subsequent tweet by View posted on Dec. 20. Those two accounts have skyrocketed in popularity, with QTok now over 6,800 followers; and Andrew Barrett nearing 11,000.
(Reps from TikTok didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment from the Daily Dot.)
While they’re the two largest, they aren’t the only Q followers on the site. A number of other QAnon branded accounts, full of conspiracy iconography like the Q hashtags “WWG1WGA” (“where we go one, we go all”), Punisher skulls, and Trump memes are all approaching at least four figures in followers.
Q-themed videos can easily be found just by searching for Q-related phrases, and many have thousands of likes and views. They aren’t big, but they’re there, making videos, and carving out a brand.
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https://www.dailydot.com/layer8/qanon-tiktok/