The Silent Voices of Qanon
A couple of months ago, former President Trump was removed from Twitter because he tweeted fake information. While it is technically legal, it is very frowned upon. Twitter is a private company, so they can control some of what the users say, but the First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Twitter is one of the largest platforms to share your opinion with the public, but with the recent crackdown on extreme ideas, many theorists have moved to other sites. One site that was exploding was Parler. Many people started moving to this site but were taken off the app store by Apple and Android. This was also debated because it goes against the first amendment. Parler has opened back up on the android app store, but Apple is reluctant to add it back to their app store. With the inconsistency of Parler and Twitter, there are low maintenance and uncensored sites. One of the largest is called Gab.
Gab was a social network launched in 2016. It was advertised as a free public site where you can say whatever you want. In theory, it does not sound harmful, but as the site grew, it fell into neo-nazis and far-right extremists' hands. Although more and more threatening content was being published on the site, Gab did nothing. This resulted in a shooting in 2018. A Neo-nazi did the 2018 Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting verified on Gab. 11 people died, and 7 were injured. The site did not change, though; it continued to grow. The only change the site saw was the removal of PayPal. Paypal stopped supporting the site, and Gab turned to CryptoCurrency. As of 2021, Gab has almost 4 million users, mostly right-wing, and has not shown signs of stopping. While browsing through the site, I found a couple of people who seem to be clear examples of what the site is promoting.
One of these people is a user by the name of Neon Revolt. This person is a far-right conspiracy theorist who has a following of almost 700,000. Neon Revolt has such a larger following that he has created a website called neonrevolt.com. Here is where he posts his larger articles about the world occurring around us. Neon Revolt is an avid believer in Qanon and has even written a book called Revolution Q, The Story of Qanon, and the 2nd American Revolution. Part of the book's goal is to bring in people who do not already believe in Qanon; it also describes how it will create a revolution to fix America. With his massive following and influence, people wondered who this person really was; until recently, when his identity was figured out. Neon Revolt's real name is Robert Cornero Jr, and he is a failed screenwriter from New Jersey. Although there is still speculation whether it is really him, evidence has come out that almost conclusively proves Robert Cornero Jr is Neon Revolt. Although his identity is public now, Cornero has not slowed down with his posts, continuing to try and recruit more people to the Qanon movement.
This is only one person, but there are many more like him on Gab. Influencers with thousands of followers all with relatively same ideas. It is one way we can scale the number of people who actually believe Qanon and these far-right conspiracies. I think it is important to understand that these crazy and insane conspiracies only have a little following when, in reality, they are growing and continuing to gain power and influence in the country.
"EXCLUSIVE: Failed Screenwriter from New Jersey Behind One of QAnon's Most Influential Personas." Logically
Neon Revolt. Neon Revolt, 6 Jan. 2021, www.neonrevolt.com/.
Palmer, Ewan. "What Is Gab? After Amazon Action on Parler, Site Popular with Far-Right Reports Growth." Newsweek, Newsweek, 10 Jan. 2021, www.newsweek.com/gab-parler-app-amazon-offline-1560291.
Robertson, Campbell, et al. "11 Killed in Synagogue Massacre; Suspect Charged With 29 Counts." The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 Oct. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/us/active-shooter-pittsburgh-synagogue-shooting.html.
"National Constitution Center." National Constitution Center – Constitutioncenter.org, constitutioncenter.org/.