In most basic terms, Q clearance is a US Department of Energy security clearance required to access top-secret information on nuclear weapons and materials. “Anon” obviously means that the poster’s identity is anonymous or unknown. More specifically, QAnon is a conspiracy theory alleging that a cabal of pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring. The theory asserts that President Donald Trump will be the one to bring down the cabal on a day of reckoning known as “the storm.” The theory began on 4chan when a poster identifying himself as “Q” claimed to be a high-level government official with Q clearance. He had access to classified information involving the Trump administration and its opponents in the United States and began accusing Hollywood celebrities, politicians, and high-ranking officials of being members of the cabal.
Members use the code WWG1WGA signifying the motto “Where We Go One, We Go All.”
It is unclear how many actual members QAnon has but it has a large online following. In June 2020, Q exhorted followers to take a “digital soldiers oath,” and many did, using the Twitter hashtag #TakeTheOath. In July 2020, Twitter banned thousands of QAnon-affiliated accounts and changed its algorithms to reduce the theory’s spread. A Facebook internal analysis reported in August found millions of followers across thousands of groups and pages. Facebook acted later that month to remove and restrict QAnon activity, and in October it said it would ban the conspiracy theory from its platform altogether.
There have been many claims made by Q and other posters that have failed to come to pass. These are usually explained away by the power of the cabal itself. Other explanations is that disinformation is necessary to mislead the pedophiles before their arrest.
The identity of Q is a huge source of speculation as well. Many believe he is a high-ranking military intelligence officer, a Trump administration insider, or even Trump himself. President Trump has publicly denied knowing anything about QAnon as recently as a town hall meeting on October 15, 2020.
There is plenty of information online explaining all the rabbit holes of QAnon despite the fact that Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms have attempted to suppress the theory.
