The QAnon conspiracy theory and a stew of misinformation fueled the insurrection at the Capitol

• QAnon believers played a major role in popularizing the pro-Trump rhetoric that precipitated Wednesday’s siege of the US Capitol. 
• The QAnon conspiracy-theory community shaped the false, right-wing narrative that President-elect Joe Biden had fraudulently won the election.
• This is just the latest instance of QAnon’s online misinformation leading to real-world violence. 
• Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

When pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, the far-right corners of the internet had been ready for weeks.

The “Stop the Steal” movement, which has baselessly alleged that President Donald Trump actually won the presidential election and that President-elect Joe Biden’s win was fraudulent, used the internet to organize the violent coup attempt. 

But the voter-fraud conspiracy theories peddled by Trump, his allies, and his supporters in the months since the election were amplified by and, in most cases, originated by powerful figures in the QAnon ecosystem.

The Dominion conspiracy theory, a foundation for Wednesday’s rioters, came from QAnon

QAnon, the baseless far-right conspiracy theory claiming that Trump is fighting a “deep-state cabal” of pedophiles and human traffickers, has become what extremism experts call a big-tent theory, as it has evolved into a collection of theories that position Trump as a martyr, victim, and savior all at once. 

Despite the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency calling the 2020 election the “most secure” in US history, QAnon helped sow the seeds of doubt among Trump’s supporters, setting up the outrage that led to Wednesday’s chaos at the Capitol. 

Ron Watkins, the former administrator of the fringe messageboard 8kun, where the anonymous, fictional government official who goes by "Q" makes his posts fueling QAnon's conspiracy theories, first tweeted about the Dominion conspiracy theory on November 11. The conspiracy theory baselessly alleged that employees of Dominion Voting Systems, a voting-software company used in key battleground states, somehow switched Trump votes to Biden votes.

Watkins, who along with his father has been suspected to be behind "Q," was amplifying a conspiracy theory that was already circulating among QAnon followers. NBC News reported that 1 in 7 tweets using the "Dominion" hashtag between November 5 and November 13 originated from QAnon-supportive accounts.

Watkins said he hoped to talk to Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani about the conspiracy theory, and went on to spread it on One America News Network (OAN), a pro-Trump propaganda news network, on November 12.

After the segment, Trump tweeted about the Dominion conspiracy theory. In his tweet, Trump claimed that Dominion had allegedly "DELETED" more than one million votes in the US, citing OAN. So began the constant barrage of misinformation about Dominion from the president and his allies that went on to fuel the "Stop the Steal" movement.

The Dominion theory went on to be boosted by Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, two QAnon-espousing attorneys who were previously supporting Trump's legal team's efforts to overturn the election results. Trump's allies have recently distanced themselves from both Powell and Wood, whose Twitter account was suspended for violating the company's policies on Thursday. Powell cited Watkins in an unsuccessful lawsuit asking that Georgia overturn its election results. 

QAnon believers helped organize Wednesday's siege and were highly visible during the DC rioting

Influential QAnon figures, including Watkins, had been encouraging the January 6 protests in DC on social media in the days leading up to the congressional confirmation of the election. 

More than half of QAnon-related Twitter accounts (around 28,000) had tweeted about January 6 in the days leading up to the riot, Advance Democracy told BuzzFeed News. Many of them discussed the possibility of sieging the US Capitol building, as Insider's Isobel Asher Hamilton reported. 

According to USA Today, 1,480 tweets from accounts with QAnon ties used violent language in the run-up to Wednesday, citing Advance Democracy. On the right-wing app Parler, QAnon-related accounts called on protesters to arm themselves, baselessly claiming that counter-protesters planned to kill them, according to USA Today.

QAnon has become increasingly mainstream throughout the pandemic, as the movement's adherents have appeared at rallies against COVID-19 face masks and human trafficking. QAnon believers have also been known to attend Trump rallies in QAnon apparel, which continues to be sold on Amazon. 

It was no surprise to see QAnon paraphernalia throughout the day Wednesday, from the early morning march from the White House to the Capitol and through the siege of the building. One video shared on Twitter by HuffPost politics reporter Igor Bobic shows that when rioters first entered the Capitol, they were led by a man wearing a QAnon shirt.  

—Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 6, 2021

Leaders in the QAnon movement also attended the rally, including Jake Angeli of Arizona, who is known as the "Q Shaman" and wears red, white, and blue face paint and a horned hat. Angeli took photos on the Senate dais and walked around with the Capitol holding a megaphone. 

Ashli Babitt, a Trump supporter who died during the rampage on the Capitol, also reportedly tweeted about her belief in QAnon ahead of Wednesday's rally. 

QAnon's online theories have frequently led to real-world action 

Extremism experts have repeatedly warned that the growth of far-right extremist groups and conspiracy theories pose the threat of increasing violence.

QAnon has already illustrated a propensity towards violence, one that has only been reinforced be Wednesday's events.

In 2019, an FBI field office in Phoenix wrote in an internal memo that the conspiracy theory may pose a domestic terrorism threat. People espousing QAnon beliefs have been found guilty of crimes including murders and kidnappings.  

In November, after President-elect Biden was declared the winner of the election, Joan Donovan, the research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, told Insider that the QAnon movement would continue to mobilize. "People will mobilize when they think their civil rights are threatened, when they think that their freedom of speech is threatened, when they think that their government is run by tyrants - Q has been really good at consolidating those themes," Donovan said. 

That mobilization was made clear in the weeks after the election.

Two men were arrested on firearms charges in Philadelphia on November 6 after authorities say they parked a Hummer full of ammunition outside the Philadelphia Convention Center, where election officials were counting ballots. The truck was adorned with a QAnon sticker and contained a QAnon hat. Court documents obtained by The Philadelphia Inquirer said that the men allegedly drove to Philadelphia to "straighten things out" at the ballot-counting center after Trump and his allies continued tweeting baseless claims about vote-counting. 

QAnon is now trying to distance itself from the Capitol siege

Despite QAnon's association with violence, in the wake of Wednesday's attack in DC, many QAnon adherents, including Powell, are baselessly blaming the riots on "Antifa," the anti-fascist movement. On Parler, Powell claimed without evidence that she thought "this was planned" and that members of Congress, who evacuated the building when it was breached by the rioters, watched "America burn from lawless Antifa and BLM." 

Jordan Sather, a QAnon social-media influencer whose YouTube channel "Destroying the Illusion" has been banned for violating COVID-19 misinformation policies, told his 73,000 Parler followers that "provocateurs" had pretended to be Trump supporters during the riot. There is zero evidence supporting that claim. 

Sather and other QAnon supporters on Parler still maintain that Trump will be inaugurated on January 20.

• Read more:
• A well-known QAnon influencer dubbed the 'Q Shaman' played a highly visible role in the Capitol siege
• 'Nothing can stop us': Slain Trump supporter tweeted conspiracy theories and her devotion to Trump in days before her death
• Plans to storm the Capitol were circulating on social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, and Parler, for days before the siege
• Trump continues to promote conspiracy theories from a rapidly rising QAnon star