ROME, Oct. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Ghost Data publishes an exclusive report titled “QAnon accounts on Instagram: welcome back, or maybe they never left”.
Despite some technical difficulties and a very tight deadline, Ghost Data claims that it was able to identify and monitor a conspicuous set of Instagram accounts involved and/or connected to QAnon. The research study provided an outcome that the presence and activities of QAnon-related accounts on Instagram is still an on-going air. The company believes that this outcome is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
Key facts:
Facebook declared that they removed 18700 accounts on Instagram;
Ghost Data even after the crackdown found at least 625 active QAnon accounts (740 before the latest FB crackdown);
These accounts have 740.000 posts published;
A conservative estimate of 40M engagement generated;
Top 3 topics promoted by QAnon: Covid-19, Save The Children, Joe Biden;
Ghost Data affirms: “Removal of about 18,700 QAnon-related accounts on Instagram, as mentioned in our updated introduction, requires a further comment. First, this sudden removal operation demonstrates the accuracy of our research approach and related data. Second, it seems reasonable to assume that our study sample is just one of the many QAnon-related networks still active on Instagram. Third, given that each of those accounts published an average of 1,000 posts, it is safe to assume that those accounts removed by Facebook have already published millions of posts, based on a conservative estimate. We therefore can simply reiterate our initial statement: QAnon accounts on Instagram: welcome back (or maybe they never left?).”
Report Link: https://ghostdata.io/report/QAnon_IG_10282020rev.pdf
About GD: As an independent research group focused on social media, in recent years Ghost Data covered such crucial topics as digital propaganda, online counterfeit and terrorism activities. Ghost Data also studied social networks’ major trends and right before the 2016 US election and exposed the activities of pro-Trump bots and Russian accounts on Instagram. Last year they also published a report about suspicious Instagram accounts, probably based in Eastern Europe, attacking Donald Trump through a series of meme campaigns. Their studies have been published on The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NBC, Reuters, Associated Press, The Information among others. Their studieshave been included and or mentioned on academic papers, leading corporates and government reports including the DHS.
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