The imageboard 8chan shut down after the El Paso shooting, but its users did not lose hope that it would reappear. Rumours were rife on Twitter that 8chan would be reincarnated as 8kun. The Qanon conspiracy theory received a boost, and many believed that the elite-run deep state had killed off 8chan to stop free speech. The QAnon narrative has proven contagious despite its empirically false claims, producing hashtags such as: #TheGreatAwakeningWorldwide, #FreeSpeech, and #8kun.
The Great Awakening is a social media movement, and there is also a book written by 12 anonymous conspiracy theorists who are believed to be influential on the deep web and in the virtual conspiracy landscape. The book explains its goal as to putting power in the hands of ‘We the People’ (p. 2) and devising a ‘plan to save the world’ (p. 3) from the so-called global cabal of a Satanic deep state.
One Twitter user exclaimed: ‘Stop allowing the elite rule you; it’s time we the people unite and rule’. Meanwhile, Chan sites and message boards are mushrooming all over the internet, such as Endchan, Bunkerchan, Spqrchan, and 16chan.
