Qanon conspiracy theorist moves from the US to Australia 

A prominent US conspiracy theorist rumoured to be behind the QAnon movement has been spotted in Australia with evidence he might be staying Down Under.

Ron Watkins is the site administrator of 8kun, formerly known as 8Chan, an internet image board that’s become a base for conspiracy theories, the far right, white supremacy and Nazism.

The American, under the anonymous account name ‘Q’, played a major role in spreading the QAnon conspiracy theory that claims the world is controlled by Satan-worshipping cannibalistic child molesters on the websites 4chan, 8chan and 8kun.

Watkins also promoted misinformation about Covid-19 and the conspiracy theory that Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the 2020 US presidential election due to electoral fraud.

The QAnon conspiracy theory claims the world is controlled by Satan-worshipping cannibalistic child molesters. Pictured: Images of the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol where many QAnon believers stormed the government building

QAnon Anonymous podcast host Julian Feeld shared a post to his Twitter account on Wednesday alleging that Watkins was in Sydney and was intending to live in Australia.

Feeld, who has spent years researching and debunking conspiracy theories, says he got the information from a source that wished to remain anonymous.

‘Ron Watkins was in Sydney, Australia with the apparent intention to settle there on July 26th,’ he wrote.

The strange coincidence about Watkins being spotted on July 26th was that he was in the middle of running for the GOP nomination for the Congress in Arizona.

Watkins came last out of seven Republican candidates, which was announced a week after he was allegedly in Sydney.

Feeld noted this in his tweet, saying it explained the conspiracy theorist’s ‘recent absence’ in the US.

US conspiracy theorist Ron Watkins (pictured) is believed to be behind the QAnon movement. It is claimed he is now living in Australia after travelling from the US

Watkins has previously made posts on Telegram – an online messaging service with enhanced encryption and privacy settings – complaining about Australia’s response to Covid-19.

He, like many other conspiracy theorists and those with far right-wing views, targeted Australia’s state lockdowns, vaccine mandates and gun laws.

But Feeld added that Watkins had since deleted ‘multiple posts referencing Australia’ from Telegram after it was reported that he was in Sydney.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Julian Feeld for comment.

QAnon started out as a fringe group on a 4chan internet forum in 2017 but grew into a global movement that propagated wild conspiracies.

Conspiracy theorist QAnon demonstrators protest during a rally to re-open California and against Stay-At-Home directives on May 1, 2020 in San Diego 

Watkins has denied that he posts under the anonymous account ‘Q’ on internet forums, but has supported QAnon conspiracy theories.

QAnon followers were part of the group of insurgents who stormed the US Capitol Building on January 6 to stop the certification of the 2020 Presidential Election results.

In March, followers of the ‘Q’ account promoted the theory that a speech by President Joe Biden on the Russian threat to cybersecurity was a call for corporations to solidify a ‘new world order’ with a ‘shadow government’ 

Other QAnon followers believed that John F. Kennedy Jr, who died in a plane crash in 1999, had faked his death and would come back to lead the country after Donald Trump. 

A poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute last year found that 15 percent of all Americans believe the basic tenets of QAnon.

The FBI has labeled the movement a terror threat.

Watkins has denied that he posts under the anonymous account ‘Q’ on internet forums, but has supported QAnon conspiracy theories. Pictured: QAnon believers are seen at a Trump rally in 2020

QAnon: America’s most lurid pro-Trump conspiracy theorist group

Origins: Q non started on fringe website 4chan, where a poster calling themselves Q left messages claiming to be a senior federal official and purporting to reveal a ‘deep state’ cabal intent on bringing down Donald Trump. Q grew out of the discredited ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy that top Democrats were involved in pedophilia and cannibalism from the basement of a Washington D.C. restaurant, but quickly picked up steam with ‘Q’ leaving ‘clues’ and claims that Trump was going to bring down the deep state. Whenever the conspiracies turn out to not be true, followers rationalize that the inaccuracies are part of Q’s larger plan.

Who is Q?: There may now be multiple people posing as Q on the anonymous 4chan boards

A QAnon believer blocked the bridge near Hoover Dam with a homemade armored tank in the name of the movement, and later pleaded guilty to terrorism 

Hoover Dam: In June 2019, 32-year-old Matthew Wright, a QAnon supporter, blocked the bridge near Hoover Dam in Arizona with a homemade armored vehicle in a 90-minute stand-off. He pleaded guilty to terrorism charges and has written two letters to Donald Trump from jail, which include the sign-off, which has become the QAnon motto: “For where we go one, we go all.”

Michael Flynn: Trump’s former national security adviser became a martyr figure for QAnon believers after he took a plea deal from Special Counsel Robert Mueller, admitting he lied about his Russia contacts. QAnon conspiracy have spun Flynn pleading guilty into him being a persecuted victim of the deep state – and some even claim he is ‘Q.’

Many believers put three star emojis next to their Twitter handles. But the retired three-star general has denounced any connections to the group and pulled out of participating in an event after finding out it was hosted by a QAnon believer.

QAnon believers make former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn out to be a martyr after taking a plea deal with Robert Mueller

QAnon Political Candidates: Jo Rae Perkins, 64, won the Republican primary in Oregon in May to run for a Senate seat against incumbent Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley. “I stand with Q and the team,” she said when asked about her interest in the group. She insisted she goes to QAnon message boards as a “source of information” and claims media focuses too much on the group. Perkins won 49 per cent of the vote against three other Republicans.

Marjorie Taylor Greene came in first place in the Republican primary in a deep-red Georgia district, and was elected to the US House of Representatives in November 2020. She claims to have stopped believing in QAnon in 2018, but continues to make controversial statements, and was forced to apologize in June for comparing mask mandates to the Holocaust