Social media teems with conspiracy theories from QAnon and Trump critics after president's positive COVID-19 test
Oct. 2, 2020
The misinformation age quickly enveloped the news that President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, had tested positive for COVID-19, as conspiracy theories about the news flourished on social media.
Followers of the extremist conspiracy group QAnon, who have concocted a variety of falsehoods about the roots of the pandemic since it began, scrambled to explain how Trump's announcement fits into their false premise.
After Trump's announcement confirming his positive test,
believers in QAnon, which the FBI has deemed a domestic terror threat, sought to decode the wording of his tweet as a sign that the president was poised to arrest former Democratic presidential nominee and Trump rival Hillary Clinton who was falsely accused of involvement in a cabal of satanic Democrats running a secret child-sex trafficking ring.
They suggested, without evidence, that Trump actually doesn't have the virus at all but was sending a message that he's about to go on a mission to root out the evil cabal.
Thinking, one, or two reasons. Possibly, to get out of sight and away from a threat against them and not scare the public. Or, they will take the therapeutic drug and become well. Showing everyone the truth. He was on HCQ before. It is hard for me to imagine he has gotten it.
— Patriot (@FaithRunsDeep) October 2, 2020
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QAnon followers, again, unsurprisingly, don't believe the diagnosis is real," said Aoife Gallagher, a disinformation and extremism analyst at the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue, in an email interview. "They are excited about the news as they believe Trump is feigning quarantine in order to bring about 'The Storm,' the mass arrest of the 'deep state cabal,' the moment Q followers have been waiting on for years now."
In recent weeks, Facebook and Twitter have announced plans to crack down on QAnon content, but theories promoted by followers of what Gallagher has called a "digital cult" were still readily findable on Friday morning.
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