QAnon Claims on X Soar by 1,283%
PLUS: Robert De Niro wrongly tagged as protest critic in viral clip; fake Spotify "age cap"
Welcome to NewsGuard's Reality Check, a report on how misinformation online is undermining trust — and who’s behind it.
Today:
Ban to a boom: QAnon's explosive return to X
From Netflix to newsfeed: Robert De Niro falsely portrayed as criticizing pro-Palestinian protesters
Fan of Olivia Rodrigo? You could be age-inappropriate under faked Spotify age limit
And more…
Today’s newsletter was edited by Jack Brewster and Eric Effron.
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1. Call It a QRevival: QAnon Slogans Surge 1283% on X
It’s boom time for QAnon on X.
What happened: On X, the use of QAnon hashtags and slogans has increased 1,283 percent from May 1, 2023, to May 1, 2024, as compared to the previous one-year period, according to a NewsGuard analysis using a social media analytics tool.
Mentions of specific QAnon phrases — including "The Great Awakening," "WWG1WGA" (Where we go one, we go all), and "QSentMe,” among others — surged from 81,100 instances between May 1, 2022, and May 1, 2023, to 1.12 million from May 1, 2023, to May 1, 2024.
This uptick highlights the continued impact of relaxed moderation on X, as well as the platform owner Elon Musk's decision to allow dozens of prominent QAnon influencers to return to the platform after they were previously banned.
Previously banned QAnon influencers include @dom_lucre, who has more than 1.2 million followers (for context, that’s nearly double the X follower count of the Axios news website), and @PunishDem1776, who has more than 290,000 followers (that’s more than three times the X follower count of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).
Some of the most widely shared QAnon posts over the past year include:
Pizzagate: A March 2024 post from a user named @ChrisMcNelly said, “#pizzagate is real & will come back full circle & go mainstream. It’s just the surface layer of the depths of evil that has infiltrated our society …”
Actually: Pizzagate is not real. It’s a wild QAnon conspiracy theory positing that high-ranking officials and celebrities are involved in a global child trafficking ring, supposedly centered around a Washington, D.C., pizzeria.
The post, which does not feature a Community Note fact-check label, had 2.1 million views as of May 8, 2024.
Interdimensional portals: A March 2024 post from anonymous X user @prolotario1 claimed that "Q," believed by QAnon followers to be a government insider, had warned of an interdimensional portal opening during the April 2024 solar eclipse. (Actually: No interdimensional portal opened during the April 8, 2024, solar eclipse.)
@prolotario1 wrote, “Keep in mind regardless of how you feel about Q, the information transcends our personal grievances. WWG1WGA is a military protocol to supposedly activate the Tesla time machines under Cheyenne mountains that has been locked down since 2016 under the order of D. Trump.” (Editor’s note: If you’re having trouble following, so are we.)
The post, which does not feature a Community Note fact-check label, had 836,000 views as of May 8, 2024.
Frazzledrip: A January 2024 post from @dom_lucre advanced the popular QAnon conspiracy theory known as “Frazzledrip.” The claim posits that there is a video on the dark web showing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton torturing a young girl.
@dom_lucre’s post stated, “Horrific Hillary Clinton snuff film circulating on dark web.” (Snuff films are movies that purport to show scenes of homicide.)
The post, which features a Community Note fact-check label, had 21.8 million views as of May 8, 2024. The same claim was repeated multiple times on X in viral posts by the previously mentioned QAnon influencer @PunishDem1776 over the past year.
Some context: QAnon supporters contend that former U.S. President Donald Trump and an anonymous government operative who goes by the name “Q” are engaged in a struggle to take down a “deep state” network of child sex traffickers.
QAnon has been linked to numerous violent incidents, including the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol; an armed standoff at the Hoover Dam in 2018; and the 2021 killing of two infant children by their father, who allegedly told prosecutors that he had been “enlightened by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories.”
In response to NewsGuard’s emailed questions about NewsGuard’s findings, X’s press office sent an automated response: “Busy now, please check back later.”
Click here to find out more about NewsGuard Trust Scores and our process for rating websites. You can download NewsGuard’s browser extension, which displays NewsGuard Trust Score icons next to links on search engines, social media feeds, and other platforms by clicking here.
2. A Role Too Real: De Niro's Scripted Scene Mistaken for Political Stand
By Macrina Wang
Acting so convincing it fooled the internet?
What happened: Pro-Israel social media users falsely claimed that a video of Robert De Niro shows the actor confronting pro-Palestine protesters in New York City.
In the clip, De Niro is seen in the video addressing someone off-screen and saying, “This is not a movie. This is real. Right now, you gotta listen, you gotta work, you gotta get your job done. .... Like you talking nonsense, then you gotta go home. .... They say they are going to do it again. Again! You don't want that. None of us want that. Come on, let's all get serious.”
Actually: De Niro’s spoken lines have nothing to do with protesters. This was just De Niro delivering lines for an upcoming Netflix series, “Zero Day,” which, ironically, is about finding truth in an era of conspiracy theories.
Watch the video below …
A closer look: After an onlooker posted the video of De Niro on social media, pro-Israel commentators shared the video with on-screen text stating, “Robert De Niro Stands with Israel!”
It then spread to traditional news outlets, and the X feed of a French lawmaker …
On May 1, Israeli newspaper Haaretz (Trust Score: 92.5/100) published an article that stated, “Actor Robert De Niro expressed support for Israel when he confronted pro-Palestinian protested [sic] on set of his new show…” (Haaretz deleted its erroneous article about De Niro hours after publication, without a correction.)
Meyer Habib, of the French right-wing party Les Républicains, wrote in a May 1 X post in French, “Robert De Niro is a King! 👑👑👑👑 Look ! He defends Israel 🇮🇱🇮🇱 tooth and nail against pro-Hamas left-wing Islamist demonstrators at American universities!”
Some context: De Niro’s spokesperson, Stan Rosenfield of Rosenfield Media Group, told NewsGuard in an email that De Niro’s character in the show was “confronting a group (all paid extras).”
Rosenfield added that “De Niro’s lines were 100% scripted” and that the clip circulating on social media had been recorded by an unknown onlooker who videoed the scene and posted to social media.
Open Online, which was among the first to debunk this claim, reported that no pro-Palestine protesters appeared to be in the vicinity during the filming.
Although De Niro has been outspoken on certain political topics, notably his opposition to former U.S. President Donald Trump, he does not appear to have expressed a position on the Israel-Hamas war as of May 9, 2024.
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3. And One More Thing: No, Spotify Doesn’t Ban Older Listeners from Younger Musicians
Music exclusively for the young? Gen Z can keep dreaming …
What happened: Spotify users are accusing the digital music service of age discrimination after social media users falsely claimed that the company enacted an “age cap” policy, restricting older listeners’ access to young artists.
Yes, you read the supposed policy right: Instead of 18+, it’s 25 and under only.
A closer look: A fabricated, satirical screenshot of the supposed new policy went viral, gaining millions of views.
“Aren’t you a little old to be listening to Olivia Rodrigo? This artist has an age cap set at 25. Since you’re older than this, you can’t listen to them,” said the notice, using fonts and colors similar to the Spotify app, which made it appear authentic.
The claim first appeared in an X post by @soren_iverson that shared the image of the supposed notice and said, “Spotify ‘age cap’ means you can't listen to some artists if ur too old.” The post had 7.4 million views as of May 2, 2024.
Some replies to the post criticized Spotify for age bias. “This must be a discrimination for old ppl like why would they even put this feature??” X user @lucyqrow asked in an April 24, 2024, reply that gained 237,000 views.
“Discrimination against old people. Let them listen to whoever and whatever they want to listen to,” said another April 24, 2024, reply by @therealbelano.
Actually: Spotify told NewsGuard in a May 2024 email that the age-cap claim was fake. “This is incorrect,” a Spotify spokesperson said.
Just checking: A NewsGuard review of pop star Olivia Rodrigo’s Spotify profile using an account with the age set to over 25 did not find any such notice.
The fake age cap feature was created by product designer Soren Iverson, who operates the X account that first posted the image, fact-checking organization Snopes (Trust Score: 100/100) reported.
Iverson “creates absurd versions of the apps we interact with on a daily basis,” and has created more than 365 satirical design concepts that he posts on X daily, his website states.
However, Iverson’s individual posts on X do not state that they are satire, including his post about Spotify’s nonexistent age cap.
Iverson did not respond to NewsGuard’s May 2024 request for comment.
Produced by co-CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, and the NewsGuard team.
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