Just about a week ago, when Savannah Guthrie asked Donald Trump if he would denounce QAnon once and for all, the US President didn’t take many seconds to raise both his hands but still scratched the conspiracy theory’s back.

“I know nothing about it, I do know they are very much against paedophilia, they fight it very hard,” he said, leaving the NBC townhall in sheer disbelief.

To describe it in one sentence, the QAnon theory is a belief that a cabal of Satan worshippers, paedophiles have been running the United States and Donald Trump aims at unmasking the cabal to punish them.

Coming off a very elaborate right-wing theory, names of 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, former president Barack Obama, several Hollywood celebrities, business owners and members of the Democratic party have been linked to child sex trafficking and Satan worshipping by the QAnon group. This group of believers state that thousands of “deep state operatives” are involved in the racket, for which they will be arrested and punished in an event called “The Storm.” For them, President Trump is the savior, someone they believe will lead the United States into light and justice.

Birth of QAnon:

Traced to an anonymous post on 4chan (imageboard website) in October 2017 by a user named ‘Q’, the theory finds its roots in the ‘PizzaGate’ conspiracy theory. The Pizzagate said that high-ranking Democrats had been running a full-fledged human trafficking and child sex ring from a pizzeria in Washington. Pizzagate’s hold on an average American grew so strong that a North Carolina man, Edgar Maddison Welch showed up at the pizzeria in Washington DC and fired three shots from his AR-15 rifle. He drove for approximately 360 miles from North Carolina, in an attempt, he claimed would have saved children and sex slaves, who he believed were held hostage in the restaurant.

The user ‘Q’, who came up after a year of Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, posted a series of cryptic messages suggesting the cabal led by the Democrats would be exposed by the Republican President. ‘Q’ is assumed to be a high-level government official with access to top-secret information.

This movement took up a stronghold when the user ‘Q’ posted ‘crumbs’ (clues) — a phrase in Trump’s tweets, minutes before the President actually tweeted, which followers took as a confirmation of Q’s legitimacy. 

How popular is QAnon?

According to Forbes’ estimates, about 56% of Republicans believe in QAnon with 33% vouching for the whole theory while 23% saying that parts of it are true. Even 3% of the Democrats find some truth in QAnon, Forbes found out.

Also read: ‘It’s bizarre, totally bizarre’: Joe Biden asks QAnon supporters to get mental health check

According to NBC, more than 1 in 50 tweets about voting in the 2020 elections in August and September were posted by QAnon accounts.

New York Times said that QAnon has “already evolved from a fringe internet subculture into a mass movement” that has reached Europe and the Balkans.

Also read: ‘QAnon is batshit crazy’: US Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham

Donald Trump’s rallies see hundreds expressing their anti-Semitic views carrying banners and boards supporting the Republican candidate. The belief that COVID-19 is a hoax and that vaccines are controlled by Jewish people, questions about the 9/11 attacks, and theories around alien landings come complementary with QAnon.

Also read: From conspiracy theory to political phenomenon: Here is how ‘QAnon’ went global

Significance in the 2020 presidential election:

Reports by media watchdog ‘Media Matters for America’ say that Donald Trump amplified Twitter accounts promoting QAnon, at least 258 times as of October 15.

Also read: ‘You’re not somebody’s crazy uncle’: Moderator to Trump on retweeting conspiracy theory on Laden

Joe Biden’s son Hunter has become the newest villian for these believers who generally go by #WWG1WWGA. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube made a leap last week, removing pages, groups and Instagram accounts representing the theory. About 7,000 Twitter accounts will be taken off, the company has announced. YouTube has also announced a sweeping crackdown on content linked to QAnon. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had in 2019 termed QAnon as a potential source of domestic terrorism.

(Making sense of the US elections can be a bit baffling. Opoyi explainers help you navigate laws and processes by answering some frequently asked questions.)