Fox News host Tucker Carlson discusses 'Populism and the Right' during the National Review Institute's Ideas Summit at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel March 29, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Unraveling viral disinformation and explaining where it came from, the harm it's causing, and what we should do about it.
See More →
Tucker Carlson needs some new researchers.“We spent all day trying to locate the famous QAnon, which in the end we learned is not even a website,” Carlson, the host of the highest-rated program in U.S. cable news history, told millions of viewers on Tuesday night. “If it’s out there, we could not find it.” Advertisem*nt
It’s true the website QAnon.com doesn’t exist, and neither does QAnon.net or Qanon.org.But a Google search for “QAnon” returns just shy of 25 million related webpages, and many of them would have pointed Carlson and his team in the direction of 8kun, the website where the pseudonymous leader of the cult, known only as Q, has posted almost 5,000 messages.Or to one of the dozens of websites that are trying to cash in on QAnon’s popularity by cataloging those posts.Facebook and Twitter have removed a lot of the major QAnon accounts in recent months, but maybe Carlson’s team could have looked a little further, to say Telegram, which has become a hive of QAnon activity, and some of the biggest QAnon channels have hundreds of thousands of followers. Advertisem*nt Advertisem*nt
A YouTube spokesperson disputed Pendulum’s figures, and told VICE News they “do not accurately reflect what is popular or watched on YouTube.”But the company did not respond to questions about whether its delay in taking action against QAnon accounts gave those channels time to set up on alternative platforms.Facebook and Twitter began cracking down on QAnon accounts in August 2020, though at that point, the damage had been done. But YouTube delayed even further.When it finally acted in October 2020, taking down 91,000 videos and removing 285 of the largest channels, views of QAnon videos dropped by over half, from 2.7 million daily views for the 30 days preceding the crackdown to 1.3 million after, according to Pendulum’s data.But just like QAnon Facebook groups that were able to migrate en masse to other platforms when the social media company shut them down, YouTube’s QAnon creators were able to do the same.There’s been a dramatic spike in views of QAnon videos on fringe platforms like Bitchute and Rumble, which have seen huge increases in viewership in recent months, according to the Pendulum report. There was a particularly significant spike in the wake of the Capitol riots.Though, obviously, Tucker Carlson’s researchers didn’t find those sites either.
ONE EMAIL. ONE STORY. EVERY WEEK. SIGN UP FOR THE VICE NEWSLETTER.
By signing up to the VICE newsletter you agree to receive electronic communications from VICE that may sometimes include advertisem*nts or sponsored content.