You're going through
a possible list
- of who Q might be?
- That's right.
You're on the list.
Well, let's continue then.
The Q phenomenon was
moving from dark to light.
Q had been building up
anticipation
for the 2018 election.
There's a possibility that
Roger Stone is deeply connected
with Q.
Who's that?
I don't know who Roger Stone is.
I'm sorry.
Ron told me, "We want
to attract QAnon to 8chan,"
and he strongly implied
that he was in communication
with QAnon.
Their team might be
going on the offensive now.
When you're on the offense,
you keep as quiet as possible.
That's the very basics
of military strategy.
There's the American model
that hate speech is allowed,
but there's a global impact.
A g*nman with
an automatic weapon has
opened fire on a mosque
in central Christchurch.
8chan should not continue.
By being a member
of the n*zi party,
I'm trying to create
a white revolution
to establish
an all-white America,
and a new order
for the white man
throughout the world.
In 1976,
a group of neo-Nazis
wanted to hold
a public demonstration
in the town of
Skokie, Illinois,
home to a large
Jewish population.
7,000 concentration
camp survivors
living in the predominantly
Jewish Chicago suburb
of Skokie.
They can march
down the streets
wearing a swastika, right?
In front of these people
who weighed 85 pounds
when the w*r was over.
They don't have a right
to attempt to convince others
to put me in a gas chamber.
That they don't have
a right to do.
Officials and their supporters
did everything
in their power
to block the Nazis
from demonstrating.
Intense outrage
escalated the case
to the national spotlight
with the state legislature
pushing to enact
hate speech laws.
A lawyer named
David Goldberger,
who worked for the ACLU,
or the American Civil
Liberties Union,
took the case.
He was Jewish.
And his decision
was incredibly unpopular.
A federal court
in Chicago ruled today
that attempts by the village
of Skokie to stop the march
are unconstitutional.
I think we got our rights
secured now pretty good.
And I think we're on the way
to giving a real voice
for the white man
here in America.
The judge also quoted
the opinion of Justice Holmes
that the Constitutional
principle of free thought
meant
free thought not for those
who agree with us,
but freedom for
the thought we hate.
Death!
Death to the f*ck' Nazis!
Goldberger received
death threats,
and the ACLU
hemorrhaged members.
So, in an open letter,
Goldberger explained
his position
that limiting free speech
could be dangerous.
The authorities in power
could use that precedent
to squash dissent,
whether it be
a r*cist sheriff,
or a local
police department
hostile to anti-w*r
demonstrators.
Or the wrong
kind of president.
Like the march in Skokie,
8chan was testing
the limits of free speech.
8chan,
like most of the internet,
is protected by a law
called Section 230.
It protects the website
from being sued
for what users
say on their site.
Section 230, it has been
the legal foundation
for the growth of the internet,
and a platform for free speech.
After the shootings
in Christchurch and Poway,
people started to sense
that our interconnectedness
had become weaponized.
And powerful politicians
seemed to think that
Section 230 was the problem.
Was 8chan about to become
the Skokie case
of the digital age?
Independence Day, 2019.
Donald Trump had decided
to host a military parade
to honor America's
men and women in uniform.
President Trump
says that this will be
the show of a lifetime.
There will be
armored vehicles,
bombers, military jets
flying over or
on display at the Mall
during the president's
Salute to America.
Q had been losing steam,
and there was a sense that
the mass arrests
of the elite cabal
of Democrats and
Deep State operatives
would never happen.
Still, in the days
leading up to the parade,
Q's most ardent believers
and QTubers
sensed that something big
was about to happen.
You know, a lot of people
have been speculating
this is gonna be
the big announcement where
Trump tells us he's Q,
but,
I'm still just
gonna wait and see.
Today we are coming to you
live from the line
about to go into
the Trump Fourth of July
Salute to America.
Tell the people
what's going on, Dustin.
Well, we are here
representing the truth.
- And, uh--
As long as we got
Donald f*cking Trump.
Those shirts are actually
out here, aren't they?
Oh, man. You're gonna
have to bleep that out
of the livestream.
Okay, I got 10 likes.
That's good.
So I run a YouTube channel
called JustInformed Talk.
It's about QAnon.
Do you know what QAnon is?
Hey, Craig, rotate camera.
Hello, America.
The First Lady and I wish
each and every one of you
a happy Independence Day
on this truly historic
Fourth of July.
Long story short,
Trump didn't announce
that he was Q.
But something big
was about to happen.
Billionaire financier
Jeffrey Epstein
has been arrested.
He faces two counts
of sex trafficking.
Hi, guys. So, anything
happening in the news?
All of these people
are going down,
and the world
will soon learn
that everything
I've been reporting is true.
And for the people
who are still attacking me
right now,
you're gonna be exposed,
and the world's gonna know
that you're a fraud,
and I'm not.
So keep it up!
Epstein's arrest was
the ultimate validation
for Q believers.
They reveled in pointing out
Epstein's connection
to their enemies,
while bending over backwards
to justify Trump's own
dirty history with the man.
The truth of the matter is,
is that President Trump
has been calling out
Jeffrey Epstein for years.
So anyone's that's saying
that he's friends with Epstein,
that's a total lie.
QAnon and 8chan
reached the height
of their popularity
with 8chan's site traffic
topping more than
four million users.
And the growth probably
would have continued.
But then
Come on. Hands up.
Hands up.
Hands up. Hands up.
We begin with breaking news.
A deadly mass sh**ting
at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
Keep going. Run out that way.
At least 20 dead,
more than two dozen injured.
Tonight, authorities say
the g*nman was armed
with an as*ault-style r*fle,
and authorities believe
based on what they've read,
and what they've
heard from him,
he was there to sh**t
as many Mexicans as possible.
That mall here in El Paso
is just five miles from
the US-Mexico border.
Just minutes before
the attack,
the alleged sh**ter
is believed to have posted
a r*cist message on 8chan.
Tonight, the man
who created that site
wants it shut down.
What made you change your mind?
I changed my mind
because of the way
that they're administering
the site.
Even as early as yesterday,
a full 24 hours
after the shootings,
they still had on the front page
the words "embrace infamy."
It's kind of like
they're laughing about this.
I'm pretty sure
it led to the network
not even wanting
to work with them.
By "network,"
Fred meant Cloudflare.
It's a secure internet
service provider
that hosts many
major websites
and protects them
from cyber attacks.
And after the sh**ting
in El Paso,
Cloudflare was done
protecting 8chan.
Web security company
Cloudflare
pulled its services
from 8chan,
causing the site to go dark.
In a statement,
Cloudflare said 8chan
had crossed the line,
and has, quote,
"repeatedly
proven itself to be
a cesspool of hate."
And like Cloudflare,
Fred seemed to hate
being associated
with the shootings.
You created this,
Mr. Brennan,
as a free speech platform.
What's your assessment
of what 8chan has become?
It's definitely not become
anything like I expected,
and it seems like
I'm never gonna be able
to get away from it,
which, you know,
I might even deserve.
Fred was on an all-out
media blitz,
attacking his former bosses
in a very public way.
I regret giving it
to Jim because
he's run it so poorly
in these past few years.
The very first thing
they should do is stop
treating it like
it's just a game.
I have so many journalists
on my DMs.
Whenever I find out
something new, I'm like,
"Hey, guys!"
By the way,
I'm gonna keep the dog.
I've done it in past interviews.
Yeah, you did it in
your previous interview.
-Oh, I did, didn't I?
Yeah, okay.
-Yeah.
BBC World News
wouldn't let me do it.
I almost just said,
"Ah, you know what?
Forget this interview then."
But
Fred wasn't just attacking
in front of the camera.
He was hitting 8chan
from behind the scenes,
as well.
He claimed that it was
his call to Cloudflare
that convinced them
to drop 8chan as a client.
I mean, my campaign
has been quite effective.
It has been. I mean,
you, you are the reason
that 8chan is down right now.
Probably more than
anything else.
Yeah. Pretty much.
I sent a thank you
to Cloudflare.
-And I know that the CEO
got it, so
-Mm-hmm.
I, I guess I'm trying
to understand where your
conviction to take Jim down
is coming from.
Jim was not operating
8chan in good faith.
And, and you had
an arrangement with him
where you expected
that he would?
Yes. Of course.
This was my recommendation.
After a sh**ting,
shut down the n*zi board
for 48 hours,
so that the victims
don't have to see
people celebrating the deaths
of their loved ones.
Like, I'm not saying
8chan is responsible
for all the shootings.
But they like to be celebrated
by the anons there.
I mean, if it was a white man
with a g*n sh**ting minorities,
they loved it.
And they would meme it,
and they would incite
further violence.
Jim Watkins
is a bad faith actor.
And if he's not,
his son is.
You know,
both of them together
did nothing after the shootings.
What a sad weekend.
I just finished watching
the President of
the United States
give his condolences
to the families
of the victims
of the El Paso Walmart sh**ting.
Hopefully service
will be restored shortly.
Again, my thoughts and prayers
are for the victims
of the violence everywhere.
Yeah, I just don't get
why 8chan is still--
they're still trying to open it.
You know?
Do you connect Q
to those shootings?
Not necessarily Q,
-but definitely the
n*zi boards. Of course.
-Mm-hmm.
-I am concerned
-Yeah.
that it could happen
with the Q people.
Let's say Trump
gets out of office?
I mean yeah.
Like, it's dangerous.
And I'm not necessarily,
you know--
I don't know the degree
to which conspiracy theories
are free speech.
Millions and millions
of people are upset
that 8chan's down.
And 8chan's getting bullied
by the few, really loud
talking heads on
the mainstream media.
It's really unfair.
And they got a new
really loud talking head
He's literally just
a talking head. That's all.
That should make the cut.
I'm not gonna
get down about it.
We have a lot of, uh,
a lot of Q-munity support.
And do you--
Has there been any--
anything related to Q?
Has anyone tried to get
in touch with you
related to that, or
Uh, Q has not tried to
get in touch with me.
But a lot of people
are asking me about Q.
And, uh
I don't know what to say.
Like, just wait till
the site's back, right?
But then we got the
Congressional hearing summons.
The f*cking
House of Representatives,
I guess.
As Ron was actively
trying to find
an alternate solution
to Cloudflare,
the hits against 8chan
just kept coming.
The House Committee
on Homeland Security
is calling for the owner
of 8chan to testify,
asking that he answer
questions about
the website's efforts
to control the proliferation
of extremist content
on the site.
After three white
supremacist shooters
posted their manifestos
on the site,
it seemed that
the US government
wanted to talk.
I really, I've tried
to imagine your dad
appearing in front of Congress.
Are you going to be appearing
in front of Congress?
-Have you guys talked about it?
-Uh, I'd like to.
I have a lot to say.
But he's adamant about
him doing it himself, so
Uh, I'm gonna go over there
for moral support-- support.
And maybe, uh, help him
figure out some of
the talking points.
So
They saw how quick this blew up.
And they were following it
from the beginning,
and they're like, "Nope."
I'm not gonna say
it was against Q,
but I definitely think
it's an attack on Trump.
They want to shut down
the alternate flows
of information.
I've been writing letters
to different, uh,
free speech advocates,
and lawyers, and, uh,
I'm planning to write
to Steve Bannon next.
Uh, have you ever had
any interaction with,
with him before?
I've never had an interaction
with Steve Bannon. I've
I think he's cool. Uh
I read his Wikipedia page.
I know he's a strong advocate
for free speech.
Steve Bannon,
the co-founder of far-right
news outlet Breitbart,
was also Trump's
chief strategist.
If he knows what 8chan is,
which I think he knows
what 8chan is,
he's gonna probably have
an incentive to help you.
This certainly wouldn't
have been the first time
where 8chan and Bannon's
interests were aligned.
A movement being billed
by some as
a fight for game journalism
ethics
is being used to target
women in the industry.
Using his far-right
news outlet Breitbart,
Bannon amplified
anger during GamerGate,
winning over its adherents.
Video games are assailed
on all sides by people
who want to restrict
the acceptable limits
of a creative expression.
I think that's dangerous.
Gamers are the first people
who rose up and said no
to the social justice
warriors.
He reportedly targeted incels
in the run-up to
the 2016 election,
mobilizing their support
for Trump.
In other words,
Bannon knew how to harness
the rage machine
of the internet,
and turn people over
to his worldview.
We're done recording?
Whoosh!
- Uh, we can be.
- You feeling tired?
-Yeah.
-All right.
So, what's, what's,
what's the goal, here,
-of, of--
-The goal. I want--
It was a hell of a thing
for Ron to admit,
and Bannon certainly
had been on my list
of suspects.
The Q timeline coincides
with a couple major events
in Steve Bannon's life.
Steve Bannon is
leaving his post
as the president's
chief strategist.
Bannon leaves the White House
in August of 2017.
Bannon plans to go
on the warpath
against opponents
of President Trump.
Two months later, Q begins.
Flash forward to
January 9th, 2018,
and Bannon announces
that he's stepping down
from Breitbart.
As you may recall,
that wasn't the only
significant thing
to happen around that time.
It was also right after Q
may have been hijacked
when Q leapt from
Paul Furber's board
to another board on 8chan,
and declared that
all future comms
would be secured
by Codemonkey.
Perhaps sensing my disbelief,
Ron started showing me
the data
that only the admin
would be able to see,
thousands of
forensic details,
including things like
the type of device
that Q was using,
whether it was a cell phone
or a computer,
and where in the world
Q was accessing 8chan from.
Drop after drop
were all routed
through just one address
in Orange County, California.
I requested that we look
at the variants.
The moments where Q
switched IP addresses.
One of the IPs appeared
on a day where
Q posted photos
outside of the office
of one of Trump's enemies:
a lawyer named
Michael Avenatti.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Let's look at that.
There's no there's no
After my last trip to Japan,
I was becoming
increasingly convinced
that Ron was behind Q.
All right, let's skate.
Yo, let's go.
But after hours
of poring over the data
that Ron had showed me
pointing to Bannon,
I was less sure.
The data seemed legit.
So what did this mean?
Why would Ron dox
his most famous user?
Bannon said
at the Walmart sh**ting
that so many people
died because
Trump made the economy
so good that everybody
was shopping.
The Walmart sh**ter,
imagine, like,
we're in here, just like,
looking at this badass robot,
and like,
that dude's got an AK-47
sh**ting at us.
That's f*cked.
Feel sorry for those people
in Walmart. That's terrible.
Going to spend your hard-earned
dollars in an American store,
to buy American products,
and you get shot
by a Russian g*n.
It's really unfortunate.
Breaking news this hour.
Officials say multi-millionaire
Jeffrey Epstein
has taken his own life.
Jeffrey Epstein is dead.
He is dead, dead, dead.
8chan may have been down,
but the Jeffrey Epstein story
continued to fill the void
for QAnons,
with news of his
alleged suicide
launching speculation
across the internet.
He had information
on the Clintons,
and the man ended up dead.
And leading more people
to the movement.
The good guys have this
under complete control.
And if they did not
want him to die,
then he's not dead.
And if they did want him to die,
well then that--
die, then that's why he's dead.
My head is exploding.
Ron Watkins and Tom Riedel
flew to the States
in order to meet up with Jim,
who was there looking for
an alternate home
for his businesses,
and preparing for his
Congressional hearing.
I slept curled up into a ball
in that economy seat.
The girl sitting diagonally
from me was masturbating
while watching
"Game of Thrones."
That was nice.
I was watching her masturbate.
I didn't masturbate.
-Epstein got suicided
this morning.
-Yeah.
And the news reported it,
they wheeled a body
out of there that
looked like Epstein.
But they didn't say it was him.
Some other people are saying
he's in witness protection.
Oh, like it's a--
not really dead?
Yeah.
- Is it free?
- No.
Great.
Thanks so much, Wendy.
- Tricked ya!
- Tricked ya!
I just read
"The New York Times."
Uh, there was a sh**ting
in Norway yesterday.
Uh, they shot up a mosque.
"The New York Times"
seems to have posted
Let me find it here
in my
8chan! Here we are.
According to
"The New York Times,"
the sh**ter who had
injured one person
at a mosque in Norway
had made a post two hours
before the sh**ting on 8chan.
There was only one problem
with their reporting.
I think that's a super mistake,
because 8channel
has been offline
for the past week.
It's outrageous to consider
8channel is the problem.
Because obviously, it's not.
The real problem
is fake news, and
There's no possible way
it could have--
it's been offline.
We have Pravda
in America now.
The next day,
at Jim's request,
"The New York Times"
published a correction.
It's a standard that
I doubted Jim's own
news publication,
The Goldwater,
would hold itself to.
We should go get cowboy hats.
We're in Nevada.
All right. Which one's
the most expensive one?
Uh, the one that we carry
here in-store is about 234.
Yeah, I just gotta decide
if you need a white hat
or a black hat.
You said you wanted
black, right?
Yeah. Is it far enough forward?
Like, I see lots of guys
doing like that.
It's up to you.
However you want to wear it.
Your boyfriend wear
a cowboy hat?
Yeah.
Damn.
They k*lled animals
to make this hat.
How it should be.
Uh, as far as I understand,
he did not respond.
Ron was being cagey.
But once we stopped for food,
he had some curious news.
A lawyer reached out to us,
saying he's interested
in helping us with
the Congressional hearing.
And he reached out to
the same email that
I emailed Bannon to.
"Greetings.
I'm a First Amendment
attorney in DC
interested in assisting
with your Congressional
investigation."
The lawyer who allegedly
had contacted them
was a First Amendment attorney
named Benjamin Barr.
-He's got a bunch of cases
that he won. Look at this.
-Wow.
He won in the Supreme Court.
Citizens United versus FEC.
This lawyer is badass.
Citizens United essentially
defines money as speech,
and reaffirms
that corporations have
the same rights as a human.
It was hard to believe that
Ron would have been
able to get such
a pedigreed attorney
without the help of someone.
Someone like Steve Bannon.
And those behind
Citizens United
had ties to Bannon.
Maybe Bannon helped us
get this lawyer.
But, of course, Bannon
will never say that.
Someone donated that much
money to this lawyer.
$14,088?
The implication being
that Bannon had
anonymously provided this
donation for their new attorney
which seemed pretty unlikely.
Because
Why $14,088?
What's the eighth letter
of the alphabet?
Okay, what's two H's
together?
Tom knows.
I just want to
say it on camera.
Which historical figure
has a name that starts
with "H"?
That's what it means.
So that's what 88 means,
and then 14 stands for
the 14 words.
The 14 words is,
"We must secure the existence
of our people,
and the future
for white children."
Now you know the creed
of the white nationalists.
Whether or not
it was Steve Bannon,
Ron didn't seem
particularly bothered
by the fact
that their donation
had seemingly come from
a white supremacist.
I don't consider myself
a white nationalist.
I'm not white.
I want you to know
that my whole life,
I've been a nice guy,
and I'm not a white supremacist.
I enjoy talking about
fountain pens.
What do you think about
the Montblanc line of pens?
I just happen to have
three Montblancs with me.
f*ck.
Check it out.
It's got a snake on the nib.
Can you see that?
I want to get the James Dean.
I want the James Dean, too.
I found one for sale,
but it's out of my budget.
-It was $3,000.
I can't afford it.
-Wow.
Could you recognize this pen
from this image?
Uh, I don't know that--
The reason I ask
is just because
it's the pen that
- appears in Q.
- Q uses.
Yeah, the Q--
That's the Q pen?
I don't know.
- Looks like carbon fiber.
- Carbon fibers
gonna probably be
a StarWalker.
And that particular pen
I'm not familiar with.
I'm sorry.
So let's ask questions
that they're gonna ask you
-in the Congressional
hearing.
-Yeah. Yes.
-Are you a right-wing extremist?
-No.
We have 20,000
different areas of interest
on 8channel.
And just a small portion of it
is anything that would be
considered r*cist,
or anything like that.
And if somebody
posted on our website,
"I'm gonna k*ll you,"
this is not protected.
We don't protect that.
Yeah, and usually the FBI
contacts us immediately.
They contact us,
and we give it up right away.
"Here you go."
I don't protect criminals.
- No.
- You know?
My website
doesn't hurt anybody.
Sticks and stones
may break my bones,
but words will never hurt me.
First Amendment is protected
by the Second Amendment.
So, it's not helping anything
for us to be offline.
Within the next day or so,
I need to turn the website
back on, anyway.
So it'll be down
for about 10 days, then.
Yeah. I would say 10 days
and we'll be back up.
Uh, it's funny.
Q prophesized
10 days of darkness.
-Yeah, he did.
-It was, like, two years ago
he prophesized it.
Q had prophesized
10 days of darkness,
and like many of
Q's predictions,
this one was open
to interpretation.
But since going dark,
this wasn't the first time
I had heard Ron mention
the 10 days.
We're probably gonna
be down for 10 days,
but that's fine.
I recommend 10 days
after it's gone down.
-Yeah.
-Ten days of darkness.
And I couldn't
help but wonder,
was Ron trying to turn
8chan being offline
into a Q proof?
-Did you plant that, or what?
-I did not plant that,
but we actually might be
down for 10 days.
Rawr!
And how was 8chan's situation
being received by believers?
Teddy!
Stop it.
My guard dog.
See what we have to deal with?
Deep State operatives
everywhere.
What's your feeling
about 8chan, then?
Are you not concerned about
them being down right now?
No. There's different
interpretation
as to what the 10 days
of darkness really means.
In a few months,
we may find out why it was down.
And who was behind it.
Everything they do
is part of the plan, so
Maybe they want it down.
Maybe they're put, like--
Maybe it's down to draw
more attention to Q.
-You know?
-So you assume
that it has-- that it's--
I mean, 'cause
not everything
is intentional,
and not everything
has meaning.
I mean, Q can't predict
everything in the future.
Q's not omnipotent.
Well, that's your opinion, but,
some people would argue
that Q can.
I mean, the, the pulling
of the plug on 8chan
seems very circumstantial.
-Yeah.
-I don't think
there's any, like,
deeper conspiracy than,
than that.
-Right? Like, right now
it's just down.
-Well, the bigger--
Well, the bigger question
is if Q is just
a conspiracy theory,
and/or a LARP,
then why is there
all this effort
to discredit Q,
and to take Q down,
and to silence Q.
I think that's
the bigger question.
Since we were
already discussing
our favorite theories,
I decided to test out
the Bannon theory with Liz.
Yeah, well, I didn't know
he had a house
in Laguna Beach
till you told me.
I guess I'm not
stalking him enough.
Uh, I haven't been
to his house, to be fair.
-I've only Google mapped it.
-Mm-hmm.
So I haven't officially
stalked Bannon yet.
The IP address
that Ron had showed me
was supposedly
just minutes away from
where I was standing.
Though if Bannon had set up
a proxy server in his home,
he'd have been able
to access it from
anywhere in the world.
He could even be in Italy,
where he was attempting
to cultivate
an academy for sh*t-posting
culture warriors
on the deified grounds
of an 800-year-old monastery.
The populist nationalist
sovereignty movement
has great politicians,
a great message,
and now it has traction.
That's what their fear is.
If he was trying to build
a global populist movement
that gets around the media,
what better way than Q?
When Q first popped
on the scene,
I thought he was a part of it.
That was one of the first
names that came to my head.
-Steve Bannon?
-Yeah.
He's in the shadows now.
He is in the shadows.
But I think that he's
still a major player,
and doing a lot
behind the scenes.
Um, is Ron gonna be
joining us, or is he?
- Ron is not coming. Yeah.
- Ron is not joining us.
He's here in spirit.
Jim had arrived
at the US Capitol
a day before
his Congressional hearing,
which would take place
behind closed doors.
I'm full of coffee,
and I'm full of
piss and vinegar,
and I'm ready to do this.
First stop--
meeting his new lawyer,
Benjamin Barr.
You know, the fact is
that the hate speech
that I don't want to delete
is the Constitutionally
protected hate speech.
I have a background
in First Amendment litigation.
Specifically in
protecting individuals
who have been targeted
by government
for exercising their
First Amendment rights.
I've never been on 8chan,
I've never, uh,
read anything there.
Nev--
-Never posted--
-Raise your right hand.
I don't see any evidence
of any sort of,
uh, aiding and abetting of, uh,
of violent, uh, individuals.
How did you feel
getting a subpoena?
I was offended that, that,
they would infer that
I was a white supremacist.
You know, I just,
uh, have a platform
that's like a digital
blank piece of paper
that people write on.
As simple and as beautiful
as the First Amendment is,
it keeps getting tested
again and again and again.
So this will never
lead to a law,
'cause it would be struck down.
So instead, they're gonna
do the other thing.
They're gonna hold a hearing,
and hope to bully 8chan,
and bully you.
We don't need the protection
of the First Amendment
when it comes to talking
about easy subjects.
"What sort of potato chips
do you like?"
One level,
the First Amendment's
on trial,
as it has been for the past
few years in, in America.
That even if you
were to somehow
push down speech on 8chan,
it's going to come back up
somewhere el--
There's something deeper.
Is it okay to turn this off?
After Jim's meeting was over,
I decided to ask
his attorney if, well,
he had any connections
to Steve Bannon.
-Yeah.
-So he hasn't been
around here, but I'm also--
-Hello, Q family!
-Q family!
With 8chan down
and Q no longer able to post,
QAnons brought
the movement out
from behind their computers.
Where we go one, we go all.
The small but
passionate crowd
gathered under a blazing sun
at the foot of
the Washington Monument,
attracting their opposition
from the media, as well.
Is it the fake news media?
Because I want to thank them,
as well, for coming out.
Hey, there's Will from the--
"The Daily Beast."
There he is.
Thank you, sir.
Whether they know it or not,
they are putting publicity
on this event.
You know, some, some people
are always saying, like,
"Oh, no, you're promoting
QAnon by writing about it."
At the same time,
it's a real thing.
You know?
And, like, stuff is
happening because of it.
You know, I mean, like,
the guy who shut down the bridge
by the Hoover Dam.
New details tonight
about a standoff
on the bridge
over the Hoover Dam.
There was a-- some nut
in an armored vehicle
that had blocked traffic
on the bridge,
and sup-- supposedly
he was armed.
- No more lies.
- No more bullshit.
You said you were gonna
lock certain people up
if you were elected.
The Inspector General report
on the Justice Department
investigation
into Hillary Clinton's
emails,
that was gonna be
the big moment
that would reveal everything.
That didn't happen.
We've only seen
QAnon believers
become more fervent
as each of these events
fails to happen.
Timothy Larson taking
a crowbar to the altar,
then smashing a window,
and spray-painting
the word "evil"
at the entrance to the
Chapel of the Holy Cross
in Sedona.
Catholic Church supports
human trafficking.
- Listen to me!
- Gettin' his picture.
Then leaving his personalized
cards at the chapel,
revealing a connection
to QAnon.
The man accused of k*lling
reputed mob boss Frank Cali
is heading back to
Staten Island to face charges.
Anthony Comello raised eyebrows
as he appeared before a judge
for the first time today.
He had the words
"MAGA Forever"
and "United We Stand"
scribbled on the palm
of his hand.
Oftentimes, the Q
followers will try to discredit,
uh, reporters who report
on the conspiracy theory,
because one of the things
that we're required to do
is to find out
if it's true or not.
Is there anything
that you think
the press have failed
to represent accurately,
or maybe, you know,
misinterpreted?
-The violence narrative.
I mean
-Yeah.
To be lumped in with
some crazy folks out there
who supposedly liked Q
at one point
when they did crimes was--
it's, it's offensive.
From my point of view,
what leads people to stuff
like QAnon
is this, like,
very deep distrust of,
you know, American institution
and American authority.
And I, I think that's really
like a bipartisan thing, but,
you know, as somebody who is
producing media and stuff,
do you ever think about
any sort of, like,
-personal responsibility
you might have?
-Oh, absolutely.
You have absolute
responsibility to
the words that you say.
If media people are out there
echoing sentiment,
and, and boosting sentiments,
it's gonna lead to things,
you know?
Good to meet you.
There's like a willing
suspension of disbelief,
and, you know,
the knowledge that
not only are you putting
this idea out there,
you're leading hundreds
of thousands of people
with you.
And, you know, the sort of
a lack of concern
for the consequences
that that may produce.
We have to stand up and fight
for our First Amendment right
to continue to speak
the truth as we know it.
Very soon after
the Parkland sh**ting,
was when I got
my YouTube channel
terminated for the first time.
- Boo!
- And here we are.
The censorship had to step up.
So, 8chan unfortunately
got taken down,
and now we've been
somewhat in a, uh,
you know, Q-less stint
for a little while.
We know about
all these things now.
We know about the adrenochrome.
We know about this stuff
and it's not a conspiracy.
It's you Illuminati b*tches.
You guys are the losers
in your mama's basement.
We're gonna take America back.
Let's do it!
The man!
Go! Gene, you're the man!
The Q movement is huge.
We're just gonna
continue growing.
Woo!
All of you are heroes.
Just like President Trump,
and the Q team,
- Jim Watkins
- Yeah!
Do you think that
something like Q
should be allowed
to exist on the internet?
I mean
You know, it has a right
to exist on the internet.
I think the question that
tech companies and
social media companies
have to face is, like,
how much culpability
they think they might have.
You want the internet
to be a place where
free speech can rule,
and ideas can spread,
and people can be exposed
to new ways of thought.
But you also
want it to be safe.
And I think a lot of it's like
a learning experience, right?
Because humanity is doing this
for the first time.
So there's going to be
some existential questions,
and a lot of things
to reconcile along the way.
Even with 8chan down,
users were finding
other ways to attack Fred
for keeping their platform
offline.
You've got all--
I mean, the Q trolls
and the 8chan trolls.
You've got a lot of
enemies online right now.
Oh, they do. They hate me.
That's fine with me, though.
They might just think, you know,
the Deep State got to me,
and
What would it be like
if you saw Jim again?
Wouldn't that be funny?
That would be, like,
like, you know,
um, "Maury"?
"Shut down 8chan!"
"No! You are a terrible
owner of it!"
And then he would be like,
"Uh! Uh, free speech!"
Or, you know, "What are you
trying to say, Fred?
"You don't believe in
the First Amendment anymore?
I'm an American man."
My God.
Jim Watkins,
everything is just about
covering his a*s,
and pretending to be
a free speech warrior,
and it's bullshit.
He likes testing the system.
- You could
rap that really good.
- Yeah.
That anti-Semitic meme
with the triple parentheses?
Ron Watkins specifically
added that to 8chan,
that any text in
triple parentheses
would become the colors
of the Israeli flag.
That's an anti-Semitic meme.
They would call me
a Jew all the time.
Why should I get in this, Jim?
Well, I think it'd be
a comfortable seat for you,
and I'm gon-- I'm gonna
put you in the closet
for just a little while.
-Ah, the oven.
-Yeah.
I guess you finally
discovered I'm a Jew,
-and I get to go in the oven.
-I guess.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas /pol/.
Yeah. Put the apple
in his mouth.
-Where's the apple?
-Where's the apple?
Here. Put it in his mouth.
- That's an orange.
- Orange.
When Jim was angry at me,
I was a Jew.
When he was happy with me,
I was white.
It's like on the one hand,
they're winking and nodding
to the Nazis,
and on the other hand,
they're in Congress talking
about the First Amendment.
They have to decide
what they want to be.
-Mm-hmm.
-You know?
I'm gonna say a Tagalog phrase.
Deeds, not words.
Oh, I'm so full.
I do need to sit down.
My dad should go
full Diogenes
when he's in the
Congressional hearing.
Final Jeopardy today
will concern
ancient Greek philosophers.
Who is Zeno?
I'm sorry, that's not correct.
Who is Pythagoras?
Also not correct.
You know cynicism?
It was started by
a guy named Diogenes.
Basically,
you make fun of people
that are really
full of themselves.
Reporting from The Goldwater,
this has been Ron Cordova
with Cordova Uncut.
I like my new mustache.
What do you think?
It's kind of cute.
-It's so small.
-I've been told--
I've been told it tickles.
I'm gonna be lookin' like
Guido from Sicily.
You will burn all the books.
h* h* h*!
So Diogenes is famous for,
like, going to a market,
and just, like, taking a sh*t
in the middle of the market.
And then everybody's,
like, "Why are you
taking a sh*t here?"
And he says,
"Well, the dogs do it.
Why can't I?"
In deference to the many
political refugees
from my website,
I wore a Q pin.
Although I am not Q.
I am not Q.
What is that? Pizza?
I am just full of
symbolism today.
And I'm also full of
a lot of Masonic stuff.
How are you feeling
right now?
I feel great.
I didn't brush my teeth
on purpose.
I intend to have halitosis
to the max
so they'll put me
in a bigger room.
- Did they ask you about Q?
- I didn't talk--
-They didn't ask about Q.
-At all. Okay. Interesting.
And they did ask about,
are you going to do anything
about the white
supremacist content?
And I said no.
After you.
Now we understand that
you just got done
with the House Committee
on Homeland Security.
Do you feel that you've
been unfairly targeted
because of the actions
of users?
I think we're
the first of many.
And that if I don't
get back online,
that it will be
considered a success
in that they'll go after
the next site,
and the next site
and the next site.
And soon after, Congress
called in the tech giants
to discuss
what they were doing
to prevent hate
from metastasizing
on the internet,
and bleeding into the world.
While the First Amendment
to the Constitution
protects free speech,
speech that incites
imminent violence
is not protected.
This is a particular problem
on the dark web,
where we see certain websites
like 8chan and a host of
24/7, 365 hate rallies.
Jim was not invited.
As you know, Section 230
has received
a lot of criticism.
It protects a website
from being held liable
as a publisher of information.
I would request that, uh,
the representatives tell us
why Americans
should be confident
that each of your companies
is taking this issue seriously.
Since 2015, we've suspended
more than 1.5 million accounts.
They seemed eager
to assure representatives
that the situation
was somehow controllable.
Of the nine million videos
that we removed
in the second quarter
of this year,
87 percent of those
were first flagged
by our machines.
Their new plan was
to use algorithms--
A.I., which had amplified
content like QAnon
in order to moderate
and control content
like QAnon.
We are now able
to use technology
to review a lot of that content
so that people don't have to.
Now, such algorithms
were already in use.
But when it came
to the Christchurch
sh**ter's video,
they had only managed
to block a portion of
the millions of uploads.
Conversely,
automated moderation
had intentionally,
or unintentionally,
blocked Black Lives Matter
hashtags,
limited the reach
of disabled people,
and silenced certain
LGBTQ channels on YouTube.
If Congress reformed
or repealed Section 230,
algorithms were central
to Big Tech's plans
for moderation.
All three of your companies,
not exactly known for being
a small business,
what about a start-up?
What about a company
trying to enter into this space
that each of your companies
entered into
when they were created
not very many years ago?
What would happen to them?
You know, it strikes me that
as these other QAnon forums
have been shut down,
obviously 8chan has
become the hub for it.
Um, do you think that
8chan is radicalizing these
QAnon people,
'cause they're often
baby boomers who would not
otherwise be on a chan site,
and suddenly they find
this website that's, like,
just awash in anti-Semitism,
racism
-May I quote
Oliver Wendell Holmes?
-Sure.
"Every idea is an incitement."
But when you have
people say, like,
uh, idolizing a, you know,
the Christchurch sh**ter
or something like that,
you know, is making heroes
out of these people.
-I mean--
-I find it repugnant.
But it's not against the law.
Um, I mean, do you believe--
do you believe in QAnon?
I mean, do you think that
there's this really, like,
Deep State guy
who's like,
dropping these clues, and
You know, Pizzagate
and so on and so forth.
I'm just wearing the Q
out of respect
for the fact that people
are interested in Q.
And I wore pizza socks
to Congress.
I was, I was G'd up
from the feet up,
as Snoop Dog would say.
So-so for example,
what's the message
of the political speech
wearing pizza socks?
Well, I don't believe that.
But they talked about it,
and it was, it was speech,
and it was okay.
Well, there's a lot of things
people talk about,
-but you know, like--
-Yeah, let them talk.
-The decision to wear
the socks suggests--
-Let's-- let's let them talk.
So you're being a little cagey
on whether you believe
in QAnon or not.
Um, you think it's crazy.
It may be crazy,
but I'm not saying
it is crazy.
And I do believe they are
not political t*rrorists.
If you want to look at, like,
hate speech and incitement,
look at the
Declaration of Independence.
It's pretty, uh, inciteful.
It--
People died over that.
-Mm-hmm.
-Thomas Jefferson.
Domestic t*rror1st?
Mm.
-So, you know,
when the site comes back--
-Mm. Yeah.
If they shut down 8chan,
then they're gonna shut down
the next people.
Then there's gonna be
no place anybody can speak out.
What's triple bracket?
If you put three brackets
on each side of a word,
it means it's Jewish.
-There you go. Okay.
-Did you know that?
- All right.
- I don't, I don't
think that way.
-Yeah, I know.
I know, but, yeah. Yeah.
-It's like
-That's right.
-More speech and grilled
portobello sounds good.
I'm, uh, I'm 25 percent
Ashkenazi Jewish.
-I figured. I can,
I can see it, you know?
-Yeah? Yeah, yeah.
When Ron does recode the site,
you might, like,
ask him to remove
the triple bracket thing.
Maybe instead of removing that,
we need to add something
that's opposite.
With the Congressional
hearing over,
I needed to resolve
this Bannon theory,
so I headed to Italy
to visit his monastery.
All right. So we are, um,
about a kilometer away
from, uh, Bannon's lair.
I guess.
I don't know if Bannon
has people here right now.
I, I guess I can just
knock up in--
on the door
and kind of play it by ear,
and see, um, if they're
receptive to giving me a tour.
As it turns out,
they do give small tours
in Italian every hour
on the hour.
What's the Dig--
Dignitatis Humanae Institute?
Uh-huh.
Bannon?
Bannon's not here anymore.
I see.
I had come here hoping
to see a culture warrior
milling about the grounds,
maybe swimming
in the holy fountain,
who I could ask about Q.
But for the time being,
Bannon's plans
had been derailed.
And I was starting to wonder
if my investigation
had been derailed, as well.
Thank you. I'm sorry
to keep you waiting.
As I left Italy,
I decided to read
another book
about Steve Bannon.
And there was one thing
that really stood out.
Bannon thinks that
General Flynn is, quote,
"a f*ck-up."
There's no greater hero
in the Q narrative
than General Flynn.
It was a huge inconsistency,
and that got me thinking.
Why would Bannon, or anyone,
intentionally leave
a trail that points back
to their own home?
It defeats the whole point
of anonymity.
It's f*cking stupid.
So, who would do such a thing?
Someone who was trying
to make it look like
Steve Bannon.
Someone who needed
a digital trail
that validated
the Q narrative,
all while pointing away
from the true source.
It would seem that Bannon
was a red herring.
As we understand it,
investigation is at
its very early stage.
Back in the Philippines,
Fred met with
the Filipino police,
prompting them to open
an investigation into
Jim Watkins
over ill*gal content
on 8chan.
Let's talk now to police
Lieutenant Colonel
Elpidio Ramirez.
Have you been able
to talk to Mr. Watkins?
Has he been cooperating?
Do you even know
his exact location?
And it seemed that
Fred's efforts
were finally beginning
to take a toll on Ron.
Uh, I was just informed that
there's a police barricade
on our road.
Can you go out
and check for me?
I mean, I, I don't know
if they're after me,
or what's going on.
Who-who knows, right?
This is where the barricade
was reported.
There is a cop car there
parked in the back alley.
No.
- The one on the right's a cop.
- Right here.
Oh.
He's shining a light
on that house.
Oh, yeah, there's, like,
a bunch of cops back there.
- Holy sh*t.
- Jesus Christ.
- I guess we're good?
- I guess we're good.
We soon figured out
what had happened.
- You saw that, right?
- Oh, yeah.
A bear had just
happened to wander
into the neighborhood
where Ron lives.
So, it wasn't imagined.
That was actually a real thing
going on over there.
While Ron was fending off
bear attacks,
Jim was working on a plan
to bring 8chan
back from what
had definitely been
more than
10 days of darkness.
Looking for dreams.
It's not Memphis.
Tom dropped me off
in Clarksdale, Mississippi,
which is my new home.
Jim registered
his new business,
Is It Wet Yet, Inc.--
yes, that's the real name--
in Clarksdale.
But Clarksdale had
one more notable resident
Representative
Bennie Thompson,
who just happened to be
the Congressman
who served Jim his subpoena.
I put my company in
his Congressional district.
Mm.
I'm gonna put it back online.
We basically have a ghetto
version of Cloudflare.
So, they'll have to turn
all the electricity off
in the world to stop me.
It, it's gonna be, like--
Blowin' on a dandelion,
and spreadin' the seeds.
Q had been slowly making
its way into the mainstream,
and now, its ideas were ready
for the limelight.
Flynn was well-versed
in the art of irregular warfare.
I think that Flynn
was watching.
Q now had real power.
And 8kun finally managed
to get online.
Yeah!
I think that my narrative got
really wrapped up in Q's.
We have to go.
As long as Fred stays quiet,
then Jim should follow suit.
You always
give them an easy way out first.
If they don't take it then
Game over.
It's not.
We're just playing
a new game now.
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01x04 - Panic in D.C.
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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.