DisInfo Dispatch: Unraveling viral disinformation and explaining where it came from, the harm it's causing, and what we should do about it.

Here's one more from Vice News:

QAnon's Mysterious Leader 'Q' Is Actually Multiple People

vice.com                         |                        

An analysis of Q’s cryptic posts found there are two distinct authors writing "Q drops," a finding that undermines the entire QAnon belief system

QAnon followers are certain that President Donald Trump won last month’s election. They are certain the pandemic is a fraud. They are certain that the Democrats are running a cannibalistic, Satanic child sex-trafficking ring. And they are certain that “the storm is coming.”

These beliefs are rooted in one single fact: that an anonymous government insider known as Q has been posting cryptic messages for them to decipher since 2017.

But a new textual analysis of Q’s 4,952 posts has found that there were two distinct authors of these so-called “Q drops” — a finding that undermines the entire QAnon belief system . . .

For years, QAnon remained a relatively obscure conspiracy theory. But in the last 12 months it has become a full-blown cult that has entered the mainstream, thanks in no small part to social media companies like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, whose algorithms have super-charged the spread of the conspiracy theory, as well as the tacit support of many right-wing figures — including Trump.

. . .The OrphAnalytics findings back up the widely held belief among conspiracy theory researchers that the father and son who have run 8kun, and who control who can and cannot post as Q, are deeply involved in QAnon. Jim and Ron Watkins have both denied it multiple times. . .