Along with a lethal global pandemic and an all-encompassing sense of existential dread, 2020 will be remembered as the year when an unhinged online conspiracy theory about a powerful global child abuse ring broke out into the real world, then went truly mainstream. 

While coronavirus death tolls and a polarized U.S. presidential election race dominated the headlines, QAnon supporters took to the streets around the world, spreading disinformation during Black Lives Matter marches, agitating at anti-lockdown protests and egging on the anti-vaccine movement. 

From Australia to the Balkans and even further afield, QAnon emerged from the bowels of the internet, morphing into a big tent conspiracy theory that offered an ideological home for a wide range of supporters. Right wing and populist politics have dominated, of course, but the theory’s alternate universe has also been embraced by wellness influencers, musicians and even celebrity chefs. Nowhere has been safe.

Australia and New Zealand

Dave Stelfox