Disinformation experts are not happy with HBO’s QAnon series trailer

The teaser video for Q: In the storm, an upcoming series of HBO documentaries on the QAnon conspiracy movement has many deplorable experts concerned; it looks more like a preview of an espionage thriller than a careful examination of the umbrella group of conspiracy theories.

The breathless tone can be effective in boosting enthusiasm, but it worries many misinformation experts. Ben Collins, one of the leading journalists covering online radicalization, tweeted that the trailer was “being marketed in a way that could recruit more people”. Promoted by HBO as a series that “traces a labyrinthine journey to unmask the brain behind QAnon”, critics pointed out that the trailer looked a lot like “a recruitment video for Q. ”

Joan Donovan, research director at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard, said The Verge that by portraying Q as nervous and exciting, the trailer risked attracting even more people to the cause.

“The most worrying aspect for me is that the reuse of footage found online gathered in 6 hours of conspiracy content will be a validation for the contemporary movement and will drive more content / interest,” said Donovan in a message to The Verge. “It is not as if we are 5 years from the insurrection. Q influencers will use the fact of their participation in the documentary to drain more people into donations and build a more loyal audience at a time when many are struggling to contain this conspiracy in an anti-Semitic and racist network. ”

It is difficult to say how much of these concerns will be transferred to the documentary itself. The trailer is less than a minute long and the documentary series was the result of a three-year global investigation, according to HBO. Therefore, it is possible that the series will reach the right tone in the way it presents QAnon and its origins, as well as its future. The press release announcing the series says it will “examine QAnon’s influence on American culture and question the consequences of unrestricted freedom of expression that permeates the darkest corners of the Internet.”

Donovan said he hoped the trailer would be a scam and that the real movie would show people talking about how believing QAnon ruined their relationships with their families and friends, but she was not optimistic. “Somehow, I doubt that is the case,” she said.

QAnon started at 4chan in 2017, when an anonymous person posting as “Q Clearance Patriot” said he had access to confidential information showing then President Donald Trump was fighting a global conspiracy of pedophiles, whose ranks included celebrities and Democratic politicians. QAnon’s followers also strongly attributed the view – falsely pushed by Trump – that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, and many Q proponents were linked to the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol.

Journalists have struggled to find the best way to cover QAnon; reporting on this without being properly updated, the media ran the risk of amplifying and legitimizing some of the group’s most dangerous views. At the same time, ignoring QAnon’s followers or dismissing them as outcasts can allow metastasis. One of HBO’s promotions for P: Into the Storm promised that the series will “pull the curtain” from the group, but without the right context, it may further cloud the public’s understanding of QAnon and its reach.

During its heyday, there were thousands of Facebook groups related to Q and accounts related to Twitter and Reddit. Most platforms have banned, or attempted to ban, Q-related content and hashtags, but with mixed success. “QAnon depends on centuries-old anti-Jewish tropes and anti-black narratives about the modern civil rights movement,” says Donovan. “But it’s not that complicated.”

HBO declined to comment.