QAnon influencers are hopeful Elon Musk will unban their Twitter accounts and those of former President Donald Trump, after the billionaire bought a major stake in the company.
After it was announced that the Tesla and SpaceX CEO had taken a roughly 9 percent stake in Twitter, many QAnon influencers said they hoped he would allow them back onto the popular social media platform.
Twitter suspended tens of thousands of QAnon-associated accounts following the storming of the Capitol in Washington D.C. last year.
The company said it permanently suspended QAnon accounts due to the potential the online movement had in evolving to "offline harm."
On Telegram, a platform many QAnon influencers flocked to following the ban, many figures have continued to push conspiracy theories and rail against what they perceive to be liberal-dominated Big Tech.
Return for Donald Trump
Now those same influencers have fallen in line with many American conservatives who perceive Musk as a savior who will reverse the said liberal trend and return Trump to the platform. Trump was also permanently suspended after his supporters stormed the Capitol.
Jordan Sather told his 81,000 followers on Monday: "Holy moly, Elon Musk actually did buy a share of Twitter, a huge share. He's their biggest holder now.
"Now all he needs to do is delete the app and the circle is complete. Or let us all back on the platform. He's a self-described free speech absolutist, right?"
Another prominent QAnon influencer account with 181,570 followers said: "Hypothetical scenario: Elon Musk unbans Trump from Twitter. Libs have a panic attack. Trump then sends out the long-awaited storm is upon us tweet. Anons go streaking. End scene."
John Sabal, who previously organized QAnon conventions, told his 80,000 subscribers: "Just imagine for a second what would happen if Elon reinstated Trump's Twitter account. Go one step further. Imagine if Trump ruled both Truth Social and Twitter.
"Or a merger of TMTG [Trump Media and Technology Group] and Twitter. That would permanently destroy the deep state mockingbird mainstream media. Forever. What a plan. Game over."
An account associated with QAnon podcast host Jeff Pedersen posted an image of his suspended Twitter account and added: "Will Elon Bring us back?"
But others associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory were hesitant about Musk's recently announced stake purchase.
Lawyer Lin Wood, who has previously shared conspiracy theories linked to QAnon, told his 640,459 subscribers on Monday: "Be careful about placing trust in Elon Musk."
Wood later added: "He may be a lot of things, but being a genius is not one of them."
Mike Rothschild, author of The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult and Everything told Newsweek that QAnon followers like Musk because they believe he is "based" like them, trolls people on Twitter and is not beholden to anyone due to his wealth.
He added: "They see Musk as one of them, and a way to take control of the biggest social media platform outside of Facebook.
"They don't care about censorship, they only want to make sure they can say whatever they want and troll liberals. Only Twitter allows them to have both, even if there are restrictions. They'll whine about those while testing them, like children do."
While QAnon influencers are desperate to return to the platform, Rothschild said they have used other social media platforms to spread their message.
Use of Telegram
The author told Newsweek: "They've managed to use other tools to get their message out, particularly Telegram.
"But Telegram doesn't offer liberals to troll and progressive influencers to try to make mad. So they'll go back to Twitter even with its restrictions because it's all about trolling liberals."
Rothschild concluded that should Musk push for Trump to return to the platform, it could "energize the movement."
He added: "But Q's mythology is so mainstream now that I don't know what it would really mean at this point.
"What it would do more than anything is kill off Truth Social and any other attempt to build a social platform around Trump."
Newsweek has contacted Twitter for comment.
Musk is a controversial figure and has shared bizarre posts on his Twitter account on numerous occasions.
Recently, the billionaire appeared to mock people who support Ukraine, following Russia's invasion of the country.
The Tesla CEO shared the popular NPC [non-player character] Wojack meme holding a Ukrainian flag and in front of various LGBTQ+ flags, with the caption: "I support the current thing."
