Telegram is an important ecosystem to analyse the factionalism and evolution of QAnon in 2021. Over the past seven months, QAnon has seen some members siphoned off into other movements, or movements adjacent to QAnon, while other members simply continue to carry the torch and fight against the supposed deep state. “We may see the movement carry on as if nothing has changed that the movement is older and bigger than Trump himself, and it’s now up to them to carry the torch.”Ħ January exemplifies point one however, relevant to this piece are points two and three.“We may see factionalism in the movement, with some followers being siphoned off into other movements and groups and continuing their activism in ways that become only loosely tied to QAnon.”.“There could be instances of violence, as followers undertake an urgent campaign to bring about the arrest of supposed corrupt elites, celebrities, and the deep state as a whole.”.In October 2020 Amarasingam and Argentino analysed the impact of failed QAnon prophecies and highlighted ways in which QAnon would potentially carry on after an electoral loss. Since the electoral loss of former president Donald-Trump, as well as the silence of ‘Q’, the QAnon movement has had to significantly deal with the failure of their prophecies. Though extremely insightful, the authors did highlight that “Our analysis did not include data from Telegram, which is a popular venue for QAnon followers to distribute information among themselves, due to a lack of comprehensive data available for the platform.” In May 2021, Jared Holt and Max Rizzuto analyzed data from Gab, Parler, Dot-Win forums, 4chan and 8kun. In this shakeup, QAnon adherents migrated to various alt-tech platforms, yet two of them (Telegram and Gab) in the past seven months have turned into central hubs, where adherents and influencers have built new communities. Following the role that QAnon adherents, and other actors, played in the insurrection on 6 January 2021, large social media platforms cleaned house and deplatformed a plethora of groups and movements of diverse ideologies.
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