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.

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.

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.

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.