The online discussion of key QAnon phrases has largely faded from mainstream social media platforms, and the traffic on fringe sites like Parler and Gab is still a fraction of what it once was, an analysis of web traffic shows, Medium reports.
Analytics company DFRLab reviewed common phrases and memes related to various QAnon talking points distributed through social media outlets. The phrases included QAnon-centric phrases such as “WWG1WGA” (Where we go one we go all), “the storm,” “great awakening,” “trust the plan,” “dark to light,” and “future proves past.” Measuring the frequency of the appearance of those terms on platforms, DFRLab found that the QAnon reach peaked in August 2020 and saw a resurgence around the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol.
Since then, however, the QAnon chatter has dropped precipitously, to just around 7% of previous traffic, with the phrase “Save the Children”–tangentially connected to QAnon but also integral to a legitimate non-profit organization–comprising most of the data.
The QAnon pledge “WWG1WGA” has virtually disappeared, as has “the storm” and the “great awakening.” In the wake of repeated debunking of QAnon conspiracy theories, the term “trust the plan” was the top phrase found.
Appearances of key QAnon phrases jumped between Gab and Parler when Parler went off-line due to losing its hosting services in January. QAnon catchphrase use remained steady on Gab and Parler combined over the past year, barely registering when compared to the peak usage of these phrases on mainstream social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.