What Is QAnon, the Viral Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theory?

QAnon believers pointed to this moment as proof that Mr. Trump was sending coded messages about his plans to break up the global cabal.

Qs identity is still unknown, although there have been hints and speculation about it for years. Some speculate that a single internet troll has been posting as Q the entire time; others say that multiple people are involved in posting as Q, or that Qs identity has changed over time.

Making things more complicated is that Qs online home base has changed several times. Qs posts originally appeared on 4chan. Then they moved to 8chan, where they stayed until that site was taken offline last year after the El Paso mass shooting. They now live on 8kun, a site run by the former owner of 8chan. Each of these sites uses a system of identity verification known as a tripcode essentially, a username that proves that a series of anonymous posts were written by the same person or people.

Drops are what QAnon followers call Qs posts. There have been nearly 5,000 of them so far, and most take the form of a cryptic coded message.

Heres an example of a Q drop from September 2018:

PANIC IN DC

[LL] talking = TRUTH reveal TARMAC [BC]?

[LL] talking = TRUTH reveal COMEY HRC EMAIL CASE?

[LL] talking = TRUTH reveal HUSSEIN instructions re: HRC EMAIL CASE?

[LL] talking = TRUTH reveal BRENNAN NO NAME COORD TO FRAME POTUS?..FISA = START

FISA BRINGS DOWN THE HOUSE.WHEN DO BIRDS SING?

Q

In this post, you can see coded references to LL (Loretta Lynch, President Obamas former attorney general), BC (Bill Clinton), HRC (Hillary Rodham Clinton), and HUSSEIN (President Obama), along with references to John Brennan, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and POTUS President Trump.

Many QAnon followers use Q Drop apps that collect all of Qs posts in one place, and alert them every time a new post arrives. (One of these apps hit the top 10 paid apps in Apples App Store before it was pulled down for violating the companys guidelines.) They then post these drops in Facebook groups, chat rooms for the Discord chat app and Twitter threads, and begin discussing and debating what it all means.

Qs account has been quiet in recent months, and has posted only a few times since Mr. Trumps election loss in November. Many QAnon believers hope that Q will return someday, although others maintain that the movement no longer needs Q as a central figure.

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What Is QAnon, the Viral Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theory?