You'd be surprised
how many people come
all this way to see me.
They think that I'll change
the world.
Most of them
go away disappointed.
I was thinking,
"Wouldn't it be amazing,
if Reddit and 4chan had a baby?"
And 8chan was born.
The cyber-Q posts,
but Fred needed help.
I chose to sell
8chan to Jim Watkins
and his son Ron.
Jim has a business brain.
He is not tech savvy.
Our data center is in here.
And Ron is a tech bro.
We don't know who Q is.
It's not me.
Might be you.
Right? But it's not me.
The team had spent
years cultivating
some of the wildest content
the internet had to offer.
There's gore, violence.
Have they played a role
in shaping Q?
Don't arrest me.
Starting in the '90s,
Italy was in the grips
of a Satanic panic.
Gruesome stories
of Satanic orgies
involving children
resulted in mass hysteria.
It was fueled by the media
and opportunistic officials.
The only problem?
It was fake.
That's when
an anonymous collective
known as Luther Blissett,
managed to unwind
some of the craze
by doing something
even crazier.
They invented
a fake Satanic cult,
sent out videotapes
of their human sacrifices
to the media,
and after the media
published the tapes
they released the real tape,
showing it was all a ruse.
One of the primary
architects of that movement
was the coauthor of
a book entitled "Q."
In it, the titular
character, Q,
is an anonymous person
spying on the rebels,
and feeding intel to the Pope.
In other words,
Q is the bad guy.
Had the persona behind
QAnon read this book?
Was QAnon just
Luther Blissett's
latest stunt?
Or was it all simply
a coincidence?
One of the authors of the book
agreed to be interviewed,
under the condition
that he imposes on
all recorded interactions.
I wouldn't be allowed
to reveal his face.
So, you wrote
this book "Q."
When you look in this book,
what are the parallels
between the Q
that you wrote about and QAnon?
Secret messages,
signed Q.
And this Q presence himself,
or herself,
as being at the top
level of power,
who has important
information about
the inner workings
of the system,
and he starts to share them,
drop by drop,
dispatch by dispatch,
crumb by crumb.
Of course, we don't
know who's behind it.
What have you been
able to figure out about
the personality
of who's behind Q?
I mean, you've read
a lot of the drops.
Obviously, you had
an interest at some point
in trying to figure out
who it was.
There's something nerdish.
-Nerdish?
-Yeah, nerdish in it.
Not exactly a nerd,
but there's something nerdish.
Probably a former nerd.
How old do you think Q is?
Over 30.
What kind of person would
read this book and think,
"I wanna be Q. I wanna be
the villain from this book."
A villain.
Have you ever heard
of Luther Blissett?
I don't know who
Luther Blissett is.
You ever heard of
the novel called "Q"?
I don't know anything about it.
We have an army
of digital soldiers.
Has General Flynn ever
been in contact with you
-or General Flynn Jr.?
-Never.
Do you think that Fred
could be behind Q?
I don't know if Fredrick
is behind Q or not.
If Fredrick was Q,
he would've
latched onto the fame
much earlier.
- I have a question.
- Yeah?
These names you're
going through are your
possible list of who Q might be?
-Mm-hmm.
-Okay.
-That's right.
-Interesting.
- Am I on the list?
- You're on the list, sure.
Well, let's continue then.
The Q phenomenon
was moving from,
well, as QAnons would put it,
"dark to light."
Our opponents have spent
millions of dollars
against us in the campaign.
We've spent about $150.
And in the run-up to
the 2018 midterm election,
the movement even
had its very first
QAnon candidates
running for office.
Because as you dig deeply
into all the documents
that are being released
in the QDrops,
little by little,
you find out
that every single
organization in this country
and worldwide
was infiltrated
by a global cabal.
I'm Anne Armstrong,
and I'm going to be
the next governor
of Rhode Island.
Her main platform is the
legalization of marijuana.
She also told me, if elected,
she believes she can improve
the efficiency of the DMV.
Governor and Attorney General.
We've done polls
privately, and I think
we're polling--
I think I'm polling
around 48%.
One percent of voters said
they supported
Armstrong for governor.
I think we're
the only two candidates
to openly express our interest
in the QAnon phenomenon,
and I, in particular,
profess to be an escapee,
a high-level escapee,
from a CIA mind control
hypnosis program
called MK Ultra.
-Can I show? No?
-No, you may not. Thank you.
Like you know in "The Matrix"
when they have that?
-He has a thing--
-No, I don't.
We even wrote a song.
Wanna hear our Q song?
Okay, ready?
One, two, three.
Democrats are vying
for a potential blue wave
in this year's
midterm elections.
We are not seeing any semblance
of a blue wave whatsoever.
In fact, what we're probably
seeing is a red wave.
Q had been building up
anticipation
for the 2018 midterm elections,
energizing its army
of digital soldiers,
repeating ideas like
Panic In DC,
Patriots In Control,
and predicting a red wave,
or even a red tsunami.
"Silent majority no more.
Be loud.
"You have a voice.
Are you registered?
Vote them all out.
Prepare. Red October."
That's what we're trying to
figure out with the Red October.
Either-- either there's
gonna be something going on
where a lot of people
are gonna, you know,
instead of voting Democrat
are gonna change.
The importance that
Q is placing
on the 2018 election
was making Jamie more active
in politics than ever before.
People wanna know
who is Q.
Well, nobody knows.
So there's nothing to attack.
There's no Q building.
There's no Q rally.
It's we go to the Trump rally
wearing Q stuff,
and we're all part
of the Q movement.
Q's impact was permeating
politics in other ways.
Rising MAGA star
DeAnna Lorraine
was using her platform
to attract Q followers.
Thank you so much
for being here!
You guys are so courageous!
I know we've all lost
friends and family
because we've walked away
and stood for the truth.
Meanwhile,
Marjorie Taylor Greene
was just getting her feet wet.
Both would run for Congress
in the next election cycle.
Q is a patriot.
We know that for sure.
But we do not know
who Q is, okay?
But I'm just going
to tell you about it
because I think it's something
worth listening to
and paying attention to.
On October 2nd, 2018,
Q simply writes,
"53-47."
It was days before the Senate
was scheduled to vote
on the next
Supreme Court Justice.
Let me take a step back
and explain
uh high school.
And Q followers
seemed to believe
that this was a prediction
for how the vote would split.
Mr. Carper, no.
But, it went
a little differently.
Had Q made a mistake,
or was 53-47
intended to mean
something else?
I just believe Q
is worldwide,
and I feel like
it's my duty to help share
if people genuinely
wanna know about it
and wanna follow it.
When I see the news now,
if I ever watch the news,
it does nothing to me at all.
The political news? I don't
I just go for Q.
This is the real news.
I see that stuff. That's a show.
Q says, "Vote! Vote! Vote!"
Like a million times. Says,
"Will you answer the call?
Your country needs you."
- Hello.
- I like your shirt.
-Thank you.
-Have you heard of the Q?
- The what?
- QAnon.
There's no new
QDrops at all
-since earlier.
-Nothing?
It's just the last one.
Just "protect the votes."
If there is a massive wave,
and we take seats
and gain everything
and just unbelievable,
I think Q'll be more
and more telling.
CNN can now project
that Democrats
will win the majority in
the US House of Representatives.
-Basically, we're saying--
-They're saying
the chances are that
-the House is gonna
switch Democrat.
-So but
The House right here?
New Congress will be
divided with Democrats
leading the House,
and Republicans in charge
of the Senate,
expanding their majority.
After the election,
the Senate split
53-47.
Q reminded its followers of
a drop from a month earlier
declaring,
"Senate was the target."
The implication being that
Q somehow managed to predict
how the election
would turn out.
Of course, this doesn't quite
jibe with Q's other prediction
of a red tsunami.
Nonetheless,
QAnons were satisfied.
I think this is to
bring down the House.
I think this is gonna show
that they were so corrupt.
Let them think they won.
- "Enjoy the show."
- Yeah, enjoy the show.
Neither Anne Armstrong
or Alan Gordon managed
to win their race
though the movement was
clearly gaining traction.
In early January of 2019,
I got an anonymous tip
that forced me
to revisit my investigation
into Jim and Ron Watkins.
You see, one of their
former employees
was leaking information online.
The ex-employee, who goes
by the handle IWillRedPillU,
had worked for
Jim and Ron's website,
The Goldwater.
Welcome to The Goldwater,
where we provide
an informative view
on today's alternative
news headlines.
On the website,
they kept a running tally
of how many people
the Clintons had m*rder*d,
some alien stuff,
and had a few mentions
of Q here and there.
The Goldwater curated theories
that were generated on 8chan,
and then repackaged them
as news for the working man.
But The Goldwater wasn't
getting much traction online,
and come Christmas of 2018,
Jim decided to lay off
most of its employees.
Now, one of those
ex-employees had gone rogue,
logging into The Goldwater's
US Twitter account
and airing their grievances.
There was one message
that really stuck out.
The author claimed to
have insider access,
saying that the truth
about the QAnon movement
would crush people,
and that they didn't wanna
be the one to do that.
A bit of digging
around this anon
produced the name
Courtney Tubbs.
Courtney posted
an email address
in The Goldwater's Twitter bio,
so I reached out.
She responded to me, saying,
"Whatever Jim and Ron told you,
"they would've undoubtedly
agreed to a narrative
"prior to your arrival,
and their entire goal
while you were in house
was to make that perception
seem legitimate."
In another email exchange,
Courtney Tubbs appeared
to claim that Roger Stone
had been funding The Goldwater.
Now, Roger Stone was another
likely suspect for Q.
He had the skills, the motive,
and the connections.
He also has a tattoo
of Nixon on his back.
Some pondered if
an oft-repeated phrase
in the Q narrative,
"keystone"
And the keystone
to doing that
was a reference
to the involvement
of both Wi-"key"-Leaks
and Roger Stone.
Tell Roger that my people
are sitting at the table.
Okay, so like a table
for like seven or eight?
You might remember
Jack Posobiec,
the guy who did
the Pizzagate livestream.
We're gonna go in. We're gonna
infiltrate Comet Pizza.
Jack had built a relationship
with Roger Stone,
presumably from their days
working together on
the Trump campaign.
What's your
plan tonight?
I'm having a private
dinner with Roger.
And in the months leading
up to the 2016 election,
8chan was sending
a lot of traffic
to the Trump campaign website.
In fact, the ninth most traffic
of any site in the world,
thousands of referrals a day.
So it seems plausible
that someone from
the Trump campaign,
which had a masterful
digital strategy,
would've made contact.
So I think you're gonna see
a more aggressive
digital campaign.
I mean, did you ever have any
interaction with The Goldwater?
-The website?
-Yeah.
Um, not in a very long time.
They used to send me
their articles, asking for
retweets, that kinda stuff.
You never saw any connection
between The Goldwater and Q?
Not that I'm aware of.
I mean, I haven't
looked at that website
-in a very long time.
-Mm-hmm.
-It's just the same owner.
-Oh, really?
Yeah. Owner of 8chan
owns The Goldwater.
Fascinating.
Excuse me, one second.
-Yeah, yeah.
-I think this is Roger's
guy.
Alright. My guess is that
they are here.
I don't know if Roger wants
to be on the record though.
- Stone. We meet again.
- Morning, fella.
Hey, Jack.
Sorry about yesterday again.
How are you, sir?
Good to meet you.
-Good to see you.
Roger Stone was not inclined
to go on the record about Q.
Now just six days earlier,
he'd been arrested for making
false statements to the FBI,
as part of Robert Mueller's
investigation.
Mueller's probe was
investigating whether or not
Trump, WikiLeaks, and Russia
had colluded to
release hacked emails,
ultimately damaging
Hillary Clinton's
Presidential bid.
Mueller found that Roger Stone
had been back-channeling
with WikiLeaks
with the help of none
other than Jerome Corsi,
who outed himself as
being Person Number One
in the indictment.
They wanted me to be
the key link between--
it was gonna be me,
Roger Stone
to me to Julian Assange.
And then they'd have all
their collusion together.
It'd be Roger Stone to
Steve Bannon to Donald Trump.
Remember Jerome Corsi?
He's that early QAnon promoter
and political operative
who worked for Alex Jones?
That pretty much
authenticates, again,
QAnon is very close
to Donald Trump.
When I reached out to Corsi,
he was eager to give
an interview, just not about Q.
A couple weeks later,
another guy
who had been arrested
from Trump's inner circle,
George Papadopoulos,
was throwing a small party
for his wife in Las Vegas,
though it seemed that
the terms of his arrest
actually prevented him
from showing up.
But, the party went on
with openly MAGA
and openly g*y
pop star Ricky Rebel
leading the karaoke sesh,
which seemed a bit
uncomfortable for evangelist
and QTuber Craig James.
There were a few Congressional
candidates in the house--
Omar Navarro and his then
girlfriend DeAnna Lorraine,
who was planning to run
for Nancy Pelosi's seat
in the 2020 election.
However you feel
about the Q movement,
what it did do
is it brought
millions of patriots
together around the world.
As it turned out, they
were also being groomed
by Roger Stone.
Omar is kind of a
hard-charging young performer
that I think we
need in Congress.
Let's say I'm in contact
with Roger Stone,
who I know him and his wife.
I know, like, a lot of
things about them
that, you know, could implicate
myself in something
that I shouldn't be
implicated in, for no reason.
Like, let's say
I'm in contact
with General Flynn,
and he's a personal
friend of mine.
Now, it was funny
that Omar mentioned
General Michael Flynn.
He was another
likely suspect for Q,
who could be working
with Roger Stone.
Flynn had also pled guilty
to making false
statements to the FBI
related to Russian
interference.
Q was a huge advocate
of General Flynn,
as well as the Army
for which he served.
An untold number of QAnons
now consider themselves to be
part of his digital army.
And would include
three stars in their bio
in order to show support
for the three-star General.
We were all talking
to General Flynn
and some other people.
And we were making
hints about QAnon.
And Mike Flynn was like,
"Where we go one,
- we go all."
What are
you alluding to?
I think there's about 10 people
that are part of it.
-Seven to 10.
He's part of it.
-Yeah.
I couldn't say that.
I couldn't tell you that.
-I know you can't say it.
-I have to stay out of that.
Wait
About Make America Great Again,
it's not just a mob.
It's a mindset.
I did ask Dr. Corsi
for a roundup memo.
I do think there's a possibility
that Roger Stone is
deeply connected with Q.
And I have crossed--
it has crossed my mind
that he is one of the Q.
Reporters' interest in
that memo, proving yet again
Well, you
asked him about Q.
I did.
Mr. Stone, do you have
any comment on QAnon?
- I do not.
- Do you buy it?
Oh, absolutely not for a second.
There were just a few too
many coincidences here,
and with them, more questions.
So I reached out to
Jim, Ron, and Fred.
It had been several months
since I'd seen them,
but now, I had a good reason
to follow up with them.
I wanted to see
if I could find out
more about Courtney Tubbs'
allegations
that Roger Stone had
connections to The Goldwater.
If Stone was involved,
maybe Q really was
someone close to Trump.
Let's have the 1930s German pen
and the Italian pen.
So, Jim,
what has changed
since the
since the last time I saw you?
I've, uh, I found out
I had 90% hearing loss,
which is why I was
angry at everybody.
I thought they were mumbling,
you know, speak up!
Last time I saw you
and we did the interview,
I just thought you were
being highly evasive.
I was not being evasive.
I-I-I either wasn't hearing it
or not understanding it.
We talked a little bit
about Q last time.
You didn't seem
to know too much.
Well, I don't actually
read the Q board.
I'm not a real political guy.
But, but I--
but I know more about Q now
since we've talked.
I mean, you say you're not
a very political guy,
but you did start The Goldwater,
which was a political
website, right?
It was a news website.
Objective news.
I mean, Red Pill
took over your Twitter thing
for a while there.
That person made
a lot of claims.
One of them
was that Roger Stone
was funding
The Goldwater.
Who's that?
I don't know who
Roger Stone is. I'm sorry.
Now the first time I asked
Jim if he knew Roger Stone,
here's what he said.
I don't know who Roger Stone is.
- You don't
know who Roger Stone is?
- I'm sorry.
Roger Stone, he has a tattoo
of Nixon on his back.
-Really?
-Yeah.
-He was the youngest--
-Is he, like,
g*y for Nixon-type thing?
Like, "Hi!
Every time you do me,
you see Nixon."
I've heard of Oliver Stone.
Is it a relative?
While Jim's hearing A*DS
seem to be working,
perhaps his memory wasn't.
My next stop was to see Ron,
this time on his
home turf in Japan.
Real quick, just do
a mic check for me.
Count in Chinese to 10.
So why did you start
The Goldwater?
At the time, we were
thinking heavily that
all these mainstream
media websites were
not publishing
the full truth or they
were leaving out tidbits.
And why did you hire Red Pill?
Red Pill was hired by,
I believe, my father.
From what I understand,
the person that was being paid,
their name was not
Courtney Tubbs.
I recommend you try to
reach out to Red Pill
and figure out that mystery.
I'm curious myself.
When that was happening,
I reached out
'cause I had no idea
what was going on.
And suddenly, you had
somebody making a lot
of very strong claims,
who had taken over
the account.
One of the comments, I guess,
that had been made,
and the reason that
I'm asking about it, is,
"The truth about the QAnon
movement would crush people
and I don't want to be
the one to do that."
He or she certainly did not get
information from me about that.
-I don't know.
-Mm-hmm.
It was not my job
to vet that person.
But you are registered
as the president.
I don't remember
if I'm registered
as the president or not.
-You don't remember
if you're the president?
-I don't remember
what title I have.
So, the person
who is behind
the Red Pill account
said that Roger Stone
was the one
subsidizing The Goldwater.
And that when Roger Stone
stopped paying for
The Goldwater,
that's when everyone got fired.
Uh, that's false.
So you've never had any
contact with Roger Stone?
I've never had any
contact with Roger Stone.
And Roger Stone was not
funding The Goldwater?
Roger Stone was not
funding The Goldwater.
-So those are just lies?
-To the best of my
knowledge, that is.
So who, who is paying
for The Goldwater?
Uh
I believe it was my father.
A guy named
Tom Riedel was listed
as the treasurer
of The Goldwater.
So if anyone knew about
payments from Roger Stone,
it should be him.
Okay.
Um, to your knowledge,
has Roger Stone
ever been involved in
anything you guys have done?
I've never met Roger Stone,
and, to my knowledge,
um, Roger Stone
has had no contact
with anyone in our group.
But I thought he was funny
on "The Alex Jones Show,"
sometimes.
He's quite a character.
'Cause Red Pill said that,
specifically emailed,
saying that
Roger Stone had been
funding The Goldwater.
That is where that
question comes from.
Well, Red Pill
I couldn't guess what
the motivation would be
for Red Pill to claim that
The Goldwater was
associated with Roger Stone
or any outside force.
Courtney Tubbs, or whoever
IWillRedPillU was,
stopped responding
to my emails.
It begged the question,
were they just
a disgruntled ex-employee
or did someone convince
them to keep quiet?
While I was in Manila,
I had also arranged
to meet up with Fred.
In the months that had passed,
it seemed lots had changed.
You see, he was no longer
working for Jim.
-Uh, this is my wife Grace.
-I don't know if
I met them before.
- Hi!
- And that's May.
It's nice to meet you.
Grace.
It's good to meet you.
What do you know about Red Pill?
Are we talking
about Courtney Tubbs?
Courtney Tubbs actually
had a big falling out
-with them.
-That's what I'm
most curious about.
This person had taken over
The Goldwater account,
and seemingly had
information about Q
and was involved in
the inception of Q in some way.
For sure, Red Pill
had information
about The Goldwater
and Jim's companies.
Does he know
who Roger Stone is?
I would be shocked if,
if he didn't know
who Roger Stone was.
'Cause he's very political.
I'm not a political
person myself.
I'm like a non-political guy.
I haven't been keeping up
on politics for a while.
Politics? Boring!
I'm not into the politics stuff.
The other thing that
Red Pill had said
was that Roger Stone was
funding The Goldwater.
I mean, look,
if you can prove it,
you know,
it's interesting information.
I have no ability to prove that.
And neither do I, so
Did you hear the story
about why I quit?
-I mean
-Uh, no.
So, October 2018,
I was having some
trouble just at work,
but I just wanted
to take a weekend.
Maybe go somewhere,
clear my head, come back.
So the way Jim's
system works is
he pays you not only in money,
but also in-kind benefits.
From the looks of it,
you guys had
some good times
in the beginning.
You seemed like good friends.
Well, I was nice to him.
And he lived in
the apartment building
just right above me,
and in an apartment
that I rented for him.
The lease was in my name.
Everything is in his name.
But he's paying for it,
so that kinda makes sense.
Okay, but it's an in-kind
benefit for employees.
And he has you live there.
And it's implied
that it's your space,
and that he's not gonna just
enter it whenever he wants to.
You realize
at that time he was
my office manager,
and he wasn't at work.
I wasn't dressed at all.
I was totally nude.
All I had was like a blanket.
And I knocked on the door,
and they let me in,
and I told him
I was coming over.
Totally naked. And then,
Jim Watkins comes.
Boom boom boom boom boom.
"You can't just say
you're taking time off!"
And I talked to him,
and I talked to him
like an owner to
an office manager would talk.
He looked like he was
gonna punch the wall.
"You can't do that!"
If he can't handle what
he'd been dishing out,
then that's his problem.
That's when he came out with
his "this is my unit" sh*t.
Right then and there, I decided
I can't live here anymore.
That's it.
A lot of these powerful men,
you have like a cult
that forms around them.
Jim Watkins is
really no different.
He has people that would
put their lives
on the line for him.
I really believe that.
They are an extremely
insular organization.
It is kind of a code of secrecy.
You are constantly swearing
to the made man,
that would be Ron,
you know, Jim, and Tom,
that you will keep
their secrets.
You swear it all
the time to them.
Honestly, it's kind of a lot
like the mafia in that way.
And it takes years
to work your way up
to where I was,
and I did not even
know everything.
Right? Like,
Tom Riedel has worked
with them for 20 years,
and he might not
even know everything.
I know Jim from way back.
We started working together
when I was a college student.
We started designing
websites together.
He was looking for a designer.
I was an art student.
Yeah, over the years,
it grew into
a really large
web hosting company.
This thing is great.
So, I wanna get
rid of that screen
or, you know-- Oops.
There you-- I got porn.
- Whenever I need it.
- Yes!
That's why that toggle is great.
Just always a vag*na
one button away.
I spent basically all of
my adult life with Jim.
He gave me every
opportunity to excel,
and really just kinda
guided me through life.
- Excuse me.
- Like that!
Wait, how did you guys meet?
Well, we were in Pittsburgh.
So yeah, we had--
I had two roommates,
and, um
they came home one day.
And I was, like,
nerding on my computer.
They come running in,
and they're like
"We met the king of porn!"
I think I read somewhere
that you were
"the king of porn"
once upon a time.
I've been called that,
but that's really
overstating me.
And when you say
"the king of porn,"
was he doing porn
websites back then?
Yes.
Asian Bikini Bar.
That was like his website
that first made money
where he got
around Japanese law
by hosting a porn
site in America,
which was totally uncensored.
That's what I know.
And PokeAMan?
-Oh, you don't know PokeAMan?
-Oh! Yes, I do know.
What is PokeAMan.com?
Oh. That is a website
that is owned by Nintendo.
They purchased that
website from me.
It was a h*m* website,
and Nintendo purchased
the domain name from me
because they didn't like it.
Now, if you're thinking these
guys seem to be into porn,
like, more than the normal
amount, you would be right.
But Ron takes it
to another level.
Just got a new toy.
Secondhand,
but it's pretty nice.
Ron had suggested that
while we were in Japan,
we visit Soapland.
Later, when you get
back to your hotel,
you should search Soapland
and see if that's something
you're interested in
experiencing.
Looking it up online
was a one-of-a-kind
Japanese experience
where girls lather you up,
then rub you down.
With their full body.
I got the impression this
was a gatekeeping exercise.
Maybe he wanted
some collateral.
Also, I was curious,
both about Soapland
and where things might go
once we'd established
some semblance of trust.
It's like Disneyland,
but with soap.
Soap.
Better than Disneyland.
I mean, one thing I've
tried to figure out is
there must be something
more in it for Ron than just
documenting him, like, around--
running around Japan,
-you know, philandering
about or whatever.
-Yeah.
I can't imagine
what you got there.
Did they bring you
to a Soapland?
Yeah, you have to go.
Fred's expression said it all.
And listen, we have to get
into the story of the blue Q.
-I know.
-I'm not looking forward to it,
but we have to.
You caught me at a time
I did not wanna take
unnecessary risk with Jim.
I felt like, you know what?
This guy that's making
this documentary,
he's making it about
something stupid, QAnon.
I'll talk to him.
I don't care.
I was careful about what I said,
and I protected Jim
by talking about the Q.
Fred explained that
the blue Q he had claimed
was mysteriously
left at his apartment
was actually a ruse that
he had planned with Ron.
I don't wanna necessarily say
that I went along with it
because in the posts,
we always wrote,
"Could be something,
could be nothing,"
if you look at the post.
And when Q didn't repudiate it,
and even agreed with it,
why would Q have done that?
Fred's post had
become a Q proof.
So by maintaining this lie
about the origins
of the blue Q,
it did seem to protect
the perceived authenticity
of 8chan's most valuable asset.
Q had brought immense
growth to 8chan,
and, according to Ron,
had helped propel 8chan
near the top 1,000
websites in the world.
So when Q switched
from 4chan to 8chan,
was Q simply out of options,
or was that always
part of the plan?
Ron communicated
with me and told me,
"We wanna attract
QAnon to 8chan."
And he strongly implied
that he was in
communication with QAnon.
That's another reason
I think that the people
that are 8chan are
heavily involved with Q.
A lot of people think that
because you have
so much control of
what happens on 8chan
that it would be inconceivable
that Q would not have
contacted you and
given you more information
and be working with you
in some way, shape, or form.
The only way Q
has contacted me
is via the public
publicly accessible
Q Research board.
So, Q has communicated
a lot with Codemonkey.
I think there's eight
or nine posts directed to CM.
So he was another
potential suspect.
Some people thought, well,
maybe he was working with Jim,
or maybe everybody
was working together.
Do you think it's possible that
Ron could, in some way,
shape, or form,
be involved with Q
or behind it?
I couldn't say
whether or not Ron
could've spawned Q,
and for us, as a group,
I can totally debunk that
because if we were to create Q,
we would've made
another website.
You know,
why put it on a website
that is such a stinker?
- Well,
it started on 4chan.
- Well
-And then it pulled
users over to 8chan.
-Oh, okay.
If-- Okay, Q, I'll--
I couldn't tell if Tom was
skirting around my question.
You see, I hadn't asked
if Ron had created Q.
He almost certainly hadn't.
But, as admin,
he could easily have
taken control of Q.
Now, Q's operational
security was
lacking from the beginning,
which is something that
Codemonkey would've recognized
right off the bat.
Tripcodes can be
hacked fairly easily,
if you know what you're doing.
And in December of 2017,
Q's first password was
either hacked or leaked.
We're not sure.
And it's revealed
to be none other than
Matlock.
f*cking Matlock.
No numbers, no symbols.
Just the titular
name of a character,
not bound by
the rules of evidence
or courtroom procedure.
One of the funny things about
the whole tripcode thing is that
if you actually believe
QAnon is this, like,
Deep State person,
this operator,
Q's technical expertise
is basically zero.
Like, is operational security
is, like, nonexistent.
In early January, QAnon is
starting to pick up steam.
And there's a dispute over
who controls the Q screen name.
And Paul Furber, who's
running the board, comes out
and says, "This is a fake Q.
This is not the Q we know.
"Q has been taken over by
some other unknown actor.
That's not the real Q."
Ultimately, I blame Codemonkey
because without his help,
fake Q would've gone
absolutely nowhere.
Because every time he posted,
I'd have said, "You're a LARP!"
And I would've banned him,
and I would've
deleted the post.
But then Codemonkey said,
"No, this is the real Q!"
Which was absolute bullshit.
I knew it wasn't true.
The person who
had the final say
on determining whether or not
Q had been hijacked
was none other
than Codemonkey.
However, there was
one other thing
that did seem to change:
Q's writing style.
Q went from writing complex,
evolving, Socratic questions
to posting shout-outs,
sharing obviously
doctored photos,
and using an increasingly
absurd amount
of exclamation marks.
In fact, an AI analysis by
Swiss company ORC Analytics
even showed that there
was an obvious style shift
between December of 2017
and January 2018.
The style changed completely.
I thought, no,
something wrong here.
Just my radar went off.
How was Codemonkey so sure
it was the same Q?
It's a waste of time
trying to fight him.
You know, it's like--
it's trying to fight someone
who owns their own platform.
You're not gonna defeat them,
so I just didn't even bother.
I could tell in my
conversations with Ron.
Ronald was trying,
trying, trying to keep Q.
Q to him was like a,
like a prize pig
with a big blue award thingy.
He wanted that pig so bad.
In August of 2018,
seven months after Q had
allegedly been compromised
and moved off of
Paul Furber's board,
Q's current tripcode
gets hacked.
But this time, it seems
the hacker has a motive,
and, possibly,
insider knowledge.
Using Q's account, they post
a link to a lengthy diatribe
that provided
a psychological profile
for the person they
believed to be behind Q.
It is my belief
that Q is a young,
untrained American man
who is playing games
with your faith,
your hope, and your
love of country.
Mostly because
he finds it amusing.
In order to regain control,
QAnon logs into its
own board on 8chan,
where it's the board owner.
This time, posting
with a secure tripcode,
a type of tripcode verification
that Codemonkey
had re-engineered.
This secure tripcode that
Q had just implemented,
it only works on 8chan.
Which meant Q was
now tied to the site.
This Q poster
linked himself so hard to 8chan.
No outside comms,
this platform only.
And that became, like,
a canonical statement.
Ronald Watkins knows
that most of the traffic
comes from the Q people.
And that most of the growth,
if there is gonna be
any growth,
is gonna come from Q.
So, what are you getting at?
I'm getting at that,
most likely,
they know who Q is.
They engineered Q
to specifically need them.
Hm
This is a mochi hammer.
So, officially, we're gonna
be making mochi at the peak.
It's also a good hammer
for smashing things.
It says,
"Be really careful of bears."
Scientifically,
huge and aggressive.
So, I'll have to hit
on the way down,
and the whip,
and then down again.
I'll try to hit it
three times before it kills me.
What do you want me to do?
Just film it while I'm smashing
this bear in the face.
And while it's eating me,
you can run away.
I guess what I'm saying is it
feels like the mission of Q,
and some of the ideology of Q,
and the mission of 8chan, and
some of the ideology of 8chan,
even if the definitions
are a little bit different,
the goals are kind of the same.
Well, I can't speak for
the ideology of Q.
I've never met the guy.
Uh, no idea what Q is
or who he is.
And, uh, don't really
care to know.
I'm sure someday
it'll come out, but
I have a lot of theories
of what or who
Q might be, but
sometimes, the mystery
is more important.
Why do you think
that the tone of Q
has seemed to shift?
Their team might be going
on the offensive now.
When you're on the offense,
you keep as quiet as possible.
When you're strong,
you look weak.
When you're weak,
you look strong.
And that's the very basics
of military strategy.
Q says all the time,
"What makes a good movie?"
Ah, yes. Good actors.
We're all just actors
at the end of the day.
The day after I left Japan,
Q made a post,
claiming that they would now
be going on the offensive.
It was a major shift
in the Q narrative,
and it was also a notion that
I'd heard just days before
out of Ron's mouth
as we were coming
down the mountain.
Their team might be going
on the offensive now.
How in the world
did Ron seem to know
exactly what Q
would post next?
They are moving
on the offensive.
But, I can't speak for Q.
When you're on the offense,
you keep as quiet as possible.
When you're strong,
you look weak.
When you're weak,
you look strong.
By spring of 2019,
Q had expanded in
its global reach.
And increased traffic was
coming from around the world,
from Germany to Australia.
Although the Q board
had become the most
popular board on 8chan,
it still sat alongside
boards like /pol,
which remained steeped in
white supremacist content.
In fact, the users on /pol
enjoyed poking fun at QAnons,
annoyed that they were
in the same playground.
But the games were
about to come to an end.
How does sort of
your ideology
fit in with the
types of ideologies that
are hosted on your site?
I think of 8chan like
a platform or utility.
A power company
has no ideological say
in what the people do with
the power that they generate.
Every thread or post
is allowed to be
created equally.
When someone makes
a thread, we do not
go through and approve
or disapprove each thread.
There's the American model that
hate speech is allowed,
obscenity is fine,
just total free speech.
The good ideas
will win out in the end.
It's very American
to only focus on,
like, the United States'
impact of all of this,
but there is a global impact.
Let's get this party started.
After 200 meters,
take the second left,
then turn left.
A g*nman with an automatic
weapon has opened fire
on a mosque in
central Christchurch.
We are on standby
for a statement from
the Prime Minister at 4:00.
In the aftermath
of the sh**ting,
the world was in
a collective state of shock.
The sh**ter
had posted on Twitter
livestreamed on Facebook,
and uploaded their manifesto
to numerous sites.
But it was on 8chan
where they found a familiar
and welcoming audience.
The comments were horrific.
A fact which media outlets
around the world
gravitated towards.
As soon as this went live,
other members of
this community and this thread
started kind of
egging him on
and celebrating
what was happening
in this really vile way.
You know, they left up
the Christchurch sh**ting thread
until they got the maximum
number of posts.
It received 750 posts.
That's the maximum.
Families and friends
of the victims mourned
as community leaders
sought ways to prevent
such a sh**ting
from ever happening again.
We call upon governments
around the world
to bring an end
to hate speech
and the politics of fear.
There is no question
that ideas and language
of division and hate
have existed for decades.
But their form of distribution,
the tools of organization,
they are new.
We cannot simply sit back
and accept that
these platforms just exist
and that what is said on them
is not the responsibility
of the place where
they are published.
They are the publisher,
not just the postman.
In response,
New Zealand and Australia
both banned
all access to 8chan.
And pressure mounted
to hold websites accountable
for the actions
of their users.
A month after the tragic
events in Christchurch,
I met up with Ron in Macau.
He seemed unfazed
by what had happened,
and in some ways,
the international outrage
appeared to only
strengthen his resolve.
Right after
the Christchurch m*ssacre,
every major news outlet
in the world
reached out to us to
get our opinion on it,
and we ignored them all.
This is the first time
I've said anything
about it, actually.
And all these news outlets,
they're just waiting
for me to say something wrong,
so that they can use that to
push for the closure of 8chan.
8chan is one of many
online breeding grounds
for extremist views
and violent ideas.
So, what if anything
can be done?
Jim Watkins should
not keep running boards
that are inciting
that kind of violence.
They're lunatics
running the asylum.
I think it's going to impact
the entire internet negatively
if more manifestos
get posted there.
What's your take on
the publishing of the manifesto?
Why do you think
that people want
to take it down?
I think people are worried
it's gonna be, uh,
it's gonna be used
to radicalize
more people to do
the same thing that he did.
Do you think that
that is warranted,
and/or do you think
that it matters?
It doesn't matter to me.
It's not--
His document is not ill*gal,
so we're gonna host it.
By banning his text, it would
immortalize it actually.
That-- that kind of thing
makes it more of, like
It makes it bigger.
I started learning martial arts
from a very young age.
I'd say 2 years old,
and been working on it since.
There's been a sh**ting
at a synagogue in Poway,
which is about
20 miles further east
We're learning more
about the alleged sh**ter
in some postings that
he made on social media.
That's right,
the site is called 8chan
and earlier this morning
This happened a few hours ago.
A copycat sh**ter
shot a bunch of
people at a synagogue.
I believe there's
one reported death
and a few injuries.
And this 18-, 19-year-old kid
made a manifesto,
and then he posted it
on at least 8chan,
but maybe
multiple places also.
We deleted the thread
within minutes
of it being reported to us,
but someone took
a screen capture of that
and they sent it to all
the mainstream media groups,
and they're all
attacking 8chan now.
A 19-year-old posted
anti-Jewish
and anti-Trump messages
in an open letter that law
enforcement investigators
are calling his manifesto.
We're preparing
a statement on Twitter
about the Poway
Powa Poo-way
Poo-way?
Let's say it's Poo-way.
About the Poo-way sh**ter's
post. Okay. So,
"The Poo-way sh**ter's
post was taken down
"within
"nine minutes of
his thread creation."
Nine minutes.
- Within 10 minutes.
- Nine looks better.
It's more precise.
"The only"--
it's only, "only"
should only be used once.
"There are only"
and then, "the only groups."
"The only groups
publicizing this crime"
"giving attention
to this criminal
are the fake news media."
Yeah, in that manifesto,
which we did find online,
the 19-year-old said
he planned on streaming
That's better.
It's, uh
"The only groups
publicizing this crime,
"giving attention
to this criminal,
are the fake news media."
We are collecting
digital evidence
and we're aware
of his manifesto.
"There are only
screencaps available,
"and no third-party
archives exist
since the post was
deleted so quickly."
Does it fit within the tweet?
It does?
So really punching until
- until it bleeds.
- Yeah.
And then it'll scar over.
It'll be stronger
when it scars over.
Okay. I think it looks good.
Let's post that.
The shooters posted
extremist messages
to an online forum
called 8chan.
I don't think that society
is gonna tolerate
a site like 8chan
for much longer.
Hate crimes are up
in major US cities,
including right here in LA.
8chan should not continue.
The House Committee
is calling for
the owner of 8chan to testify.
After three
white supremacist shooters
posted their manifestos
on the site,
the US government
wanted to talk.
Why is there all this effort
to take Q down,
and to silence Q?
Jim Watkins
is pretending to be
a free speech warrior,
and it's bullshit.
Sticks and stones
may break my bones
but words'll never hurt me.
The populist movement
is a great message,
and now, it has traction.
We are about a kilometer away
from Bannon's lair.
I've never had an interaction
with Steve Bannon.
It seems like
I'm never gonna be able
to get away from it,
which I might even deserve.
The very first thing
they should do,
is stop treating it
like it's just a game.
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01x03 - Disinformation Is Real
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When documentary filmmaker Cullen Hoback sets out to uncover the forces behind QAnon, his attention turns to 8chan, the site where "Q" posts.
When documentary filmmaker Cullen Hoback sets out to uncover the forces behind QAnon, his attention turns to 8chan, the site where "Q" posts.