How coronavirus pandemic has fuelled the rise of QAnon conspiracy theories in Europe
- QAnon originated in the US, mostly online. Followers believe a Satan-worshipping, paedophile cabal is secretly running the world
- In Europe, QAnon is spreading the idea that the pandemic is part of a plan imposed by global elites – with Bill Gates at the top
Anti-vaxxers, white supremacists and government sceptics in Europe are starting to buy into the ill-defined but pro-Donald Trump conspiracy that emerged across the Atlantic in 2017.
Dozens of European QAnon offshoots have sprung up online, while protesters have brandished Q-themed messages at demonstrations in Berlin, London and Paris denouncing face masks and other measures to curb the pandemic.
“While the conspiracy’s growth in the US has been an outward and visible process, what has gone less noticed is QAnon’s extensive root growth and spread in Europe,” fake news monitor NewsGuard warned in a report in July. It identified the Covid-19 crisis as a “catalyst”.
QAnon posits that an anonymous, high-level government insider code-named Q is working to expose an anti-Trump cabal that runs Satanic, international child-trafficking ring and is seeking to impose a “new world order”.
