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How QAnon hijacks anti-trafficking, and what can be done about it [1]
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Date: 2024-03
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We are university educators who regularly teach students about the complex web of inequality that causes human trafficking. In general, we have found students to be interested and engaged with this topic and excited to become informed anti-trafficking advocates. In recent years, however, we have seen an increasing number of students arrive at sessions with some bizarre and outlandish perceptions of what human trafficking is.
From unsubstantiated claims of massive numbers of people being abducted from shopping malls, playgrounds, and other public places to descriptions of shadowy trafficking organisations controlling the global economy, it has become clear that misinformation on trafficking is gaining traction. While responding to myths has always been a function of education, this new community of home-spun ‘trafficking experts’ presents a challenge that we were not prepared to deal with.
Where do these ideas comes from? In recent years, QAnon has hijacked anti-trafficking discourse and activism with its outlandish claims of elite paedophilia and calls to ‘save the children’. As educators working at the intersections of human trafficking, right-wing extremism, media, and communications, we have watched these developments in horror. Understanding what is happening and the reasons why it has been so powerful is essential to counteracting it, and we have some ideas for why this has gained such purchase. But first, what is QAnon?
QAnon’s obsession with trafficking
The QAnon conspiracy puts forth the idea that a cabal of elites is currently covering up trafficking and paedophilia. ‘Q’ is a pseudonym for an anonymous online personality with ‘inside knowledge’ of the levers of power. Trafficking, in the Q space, is almost exclusively the abduction of children. Although the first Q post came in 2017, the conspiracy is largely an extension of several older conspiracies. The most prominent one is Pizzagate, which alleged that coded words and symbols found in the hacked emails of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign point to a secret child trafficking ring in the basement of a Washington, D.C. pizza restaurant. The story was further amplified by far-right media personalities such as InfoWars’ Alex Jones and social media bots.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/how-qanon-hijacks-anti-trafficking-and-what-can-be-done-about-it/
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