Paris, Oct 9 (AFP/APP):A surge in child trafficking misinformation pushed by QAnon conspiracy theorists is stirring public panic, generating violence and interfering with official efforts to protect minors, experts warn.
From the US to South Africa, AFP Fact Check has debunked claims about girls found locked in shipping containers or lured in the street with roses fitted with a location-tracking chip. A Facebook post shared one million times last month claimed 39 missing children had been found in a trailer in the US state of Georgia. In reality, they were discovered in separate locations in August as part of a police operation and a majority were not trafficking victims.
Another hoax falsely accused US furniture retailer Wayfair of trafficking children inside storage cabinets.
These stories have stoked the flames of QAnon, a far-right movement claiming that US President Donald Trump is waging a secret war against a global liberal cult of Satan-worshipping paedophiles.
QAnon crept up three years ago on the fringes of social media but has since spilt into the mainstream thanks to widely-shared posts on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. “A lot of conspiracy theories are about pure people being exploited by a corrupt and decadent elite”, said Paris-based extremism and technology expert Julien Bellaiche.
“This is a pro-Donald Trump conspiracy theory but we’re also talking about a global cabal and an anti-establishment message that you can identify with practically anywhere in the world.”
Influencers boost QAnon
QAnon has broadened its appeal particularly among women by focusing on child trafficking, experts say.
Many of the posts feature the hashtag #SaveTheChildren or #SaveOurChildren, which have become synonymous with QAnon.
Influencers on Instagram have helped spread child trafficking misinformation by sharing QAnon narratives in innocent-looking posts, according to Marc-Andre Argentino, a technology and extremist expert at Concordia University in Canada.
“These influencers provide an aesthetic and branding to their entire pages, and they in turn apply this to QAnon content, softening the messages, videos and traditional imagery that would be associated with QAnon narratives,” he said in a recent Twitter thread.
“However, behind the branding and soft colours lies the QAnon we all know, along with all it entails: racism, medical/COVID disinformation, violence, and now the negative impact the hijacking of ‘save the children’ is having on NGOs… that actually save lives.”
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