won. These ideas were further spread by Trump, who took to social media and local news to repeat the sentiment. QAnon contributed to the uncertainty over the election and set the stage for a violent encounter. The impact of QAnon seeps deeper than public confidence. LaFrance explains that “the number of congressional candidates who follow Q, or, in some cases, have even made Q part of their policy [is] in the dozens” (Davies and LaFrance). When congressional candidates like Marjorie Taylor Greene believe in Q, QAnon-supported policy and legislation will inevitably make it into congressional conversation. The danger in this comes when people who believe in government cover-ups and stolen elections become the authors of new laws, facts and accountability no longer matter when laws are being made. While January 6 is the most obvious impact of QAnon, the long-term effects are much more far reaching. The legitimacy that QAnon has been granted by former president Donald Trump gives credibility to the concern that government processes like elections are rigged. These fears undermine confidence in the government and are magnified by the presence of QAnon believers running for congress. Censoring QAnon on social media and preventing its spread could have prevented this weakened confidence in government and public officials. Many social media users will argue that restricting certain ideas to prevent the spread of conspiracy theories will go against the free speech principles that social media platforms are built on. Their concern that limiting ideas on social media restricts free speech and makes open-minded discussion difficult is valid; however, unmonitored spread of dangerous ideas and misinformation is what allowed QAnon to flourish and grow into the threat that it became, and because QAnon was not censored until the movement became violent, it is too late to prevent QAnon and other conspiracy theories from spreading on social media. Alex Shephard explains in the essay “YouTube’s Fake News Problem Isn’t Going Away” how curbing fake news on YouTube is impossible with how the site is currently run. “One of the “deeper, subconscious needs” YouTube is built to fulfill leads people to insane conspiracy theories,” Shephard argues, “[and] part of the problem is that the social concept of “trending” is inherently broken” (Shephard). YouTube’s algorithm is designed to highlight videos that are gaining attention, and the most popular videos get put on a “trending” list. The fundamental problem with trending videos is that they are selected on views and popularity only, with no regard to if the video is misleading, has misinformation, or is downright dangerous. When videos containing misinformation are given a spotlight on a site’s front page, it can expose more people to fake news and conspiracies without them knowing the video is fake. This problem is not self-contained to YouTube, fake news and censorship loopholes are becoming an increasing problem in podcasts. In the article “Extremists Use Podcasts to Exploit Social Media Moderation Loophole,” Tali Arbel says “podcasts suffer from the same misinformation problem as other platforms, [but] it’s harder to analyze information from video and audio than text” (Arbel). While people continue to make content for QAnon, it is increasingly important for social media platforms to step up and prevent that content from getting onto people’s feeds. The added difficulty that podcasts present of analyzing audio makes it even easier to spread misinformation and conspiracy rhetoric. Social media platforms have made attempts following the January 6 insurrection to curb the spread of QAnon content. However, popular media forms like podcasts and videos prove that there are far too many loopholes for QAnon believers to get around and spread their content on social media. QAnon came into the public eye on January 6, 2021, when a mob stormed the Capitol to disrupt the results of the 2020 presidential election. However, QAnon did not become a problem in January. The insurrection was a result of years of unchecked spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Republican and rightwing leaders had conditioned their supporters for years to not listen to any bipartisan
53 The April Perennial
