“For regulars on the internet forum 8kun, Election Day was supposed to be a revelation. President Donald Trump would win in a landslide, maybe sweeping all 50 states, in a glorious victory foretold by 8kun’s most famous user: the anonymous personality known as Q. Instead, Trump lost, Q has gone silent, and one of 8kun’s main administrators has quit” reports the Daily Beast.

“8kun, a shady forum previously known as 8chan, has survived challenges in the past. The site went dark when it lost support from internet services companies in 2019 after three alleged mass shooters used the site to advertise their massacres. But now 8kun appears to be facing a more existential threat as the QAnon conspiracy theory flounders, the forum’s top talent jumps ship, and prominent users float conspiracy theories about corrupt dealings behind the scenes at 8kun. 8kun is ground zero for QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory that falsely accuses President Donald Trump’s opponents of Satanic pedophilia and cannibalism. Q, who claims to be a high-level military intelligence figure, posts exclusively to 8kun. That means the forum has effectively hitched its fortunes to the theory. ‘The only reason people are still going to 8chan at all is because of Q,’ Fredrick Brennan, who founded the site as 8chan, told The Daily Beast. ‘All the other users have basically left. It’s pretty abysmal over that right now, as far as user engagement is concerned.'”