Paved with Bad Intentions: QAnon’s Save the Children Campaign

Abstract

In the lead-up to the 2020 US presidential election, adherents to QAnon conspiracy theories parlayed the “Save the Children” slogan from a well-known charity into a vector for exposure and political mobilization. This paper introduces three factors that potentially contributed space for appropriating the slogan into the QAnon-backed #SaveTheChildren campaign and, in this context, examines images of children shown alongside QAnon #SaveTheChildren messages. For these factors, we examine the use of race, age, gender, and graphic depictions in this exploitative imagery. Results show QAnon-related images massively over-represent preteen, white children compared to child-trafficking statistics and include a substantial proportion of graphic imagery. Building on studies of child-advocacy campaigns, we contend that QAnon imagery uses the familiar motif of distressed children while presenting a narrative distinct from both these child-advocacy groups and the realities of child trafficking. Embedded in broader contexts of race, gender, and emotional manipulation in online spaces, we discuss how these images are particularly impactful for conservative, white, and especially female audiences in the US and how other movements might be at similar risk of appropriation. The paper then closes by describing possible interventions to protect the safety of online audiences.

Downlining Disinformation: How MLM Distributors Use Gendered Strategies for Recruitment and Pastel QAnon Indoctrination

“…Pastel QAnon (Argentino, 2021) and wellness MLMs (Kreydatus, 2005;Pavelko & Barker, 2022) attract primarily white, socially conservative, religious women. The essence of the attraction is that they exploit the social and economic precarity of women and the gendered and racialized conservative fears around children's safety, specifically white children's safety, through online campaigns such as QAnon's #SaveTheChildren (Buntain et al, 2022) and MLM charitable events such as Feed My Starving Children or child sexual assault prevention fundraisers (Pavelko & Barker, 2022;Wrenn & Waller, 2021). They feed into the gendered political discourses that have historically pressured mothers into seeing themselves solely responsible for procuring all the resources necessary to keep their children safe and protected from powerful others who wish to harm them.…”

Marketing to Prevent Radicalization: A First Attempt at Delimiting the Field

“…Hatejacking occurs when extremist or hate groups co-opt a brand against their will. For instance, in the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. elections, proponents of the QAnon conspiracy theory hijacked the #SaveTheChildren hashtag campaign to gain exposure (Buntain et al 2022). More recently, Bucky the Beaver, mascot of the Texas gas station chain Buc-ee's, has been hijacked by the Proud Boys (Holley 2022).…”

“…Relatedly, another area that needs more academic attention would be brand “hatejacking” (Benton and Peterka-Benton 2020; Buntain et al 2022; Siano et al 2021). Hatejacking occurs when extremist or hate groups co-opt a brand against their will.…”

Human trafficking and the growing malady of disinformation

“…This narrative of a heroic spectator with the potential to save the pure victim from the omnipotent evil clutches of human trafficking normalize problematic dynamics: “traditional power relationships, the construction of trafficking as a cudgel against the other, and the co-optation of discourse by institutional power” ( 14 ). In fact, QAnon-related images have been shown to markedly over-represent preteen white children when compared to the evidence on child trafficking demographics and also draw significantly upon graphic imagery that relies on the motif of distressed children ( 20 ).…”