This chapter examines conservative attacks on social media, and their validity. Conservatives have long accused the major social media platforms of left-leaning bias, claiming that platform content moderation policies unfairly target conservative content for blocking, labeling, and deamplification. They point in particular to events during the COVID-19 lockdowns, as well as President Trump’s deplatforming, as proof of such bias. In 2021, these accusations led both Florida and Texas to adopt laws regulating platform content moderation in order to combat the alleged bias. But a closer examination of the evidence raises serious doubts about whether such bias actually exists. An equally plausible explanation for why conservatives perceive bias is that social media content moderation policies, in particular against medical disinformation and hate speech, are more likely to affect conservative than other content. For this reason, claims of platform bias remain unproven. Furthermore, modern conservative attacks on social media are strikingly inconsistent with the general conservative preference not to interfere with private businesses.

Drawing on the themes of the previous chapters, this chapter considers the future of QAnon. It examines evidence of new and ongoing developments in the QAnon movement following the electoral loss of President Trump. QAnon has shown a particular ability to re-invent itself in the face of failed predictions, “frame bridging” or brokering ties with existing social networks and movements including lifestyle and wellness communities, anti-vaxxers, deep state conspiracists, radical religious right factions, Patriot and militia movement actors, and other conspiracy-minded groups. As such, QAnon has evolved and become a movement with a life of its own, independent of Trump. While Trump embraced conspiracy theories promulgated by QAnon such as the existence of a “deep state” intent on sabotaging the president’s policies, the range of conspiratorial ideas expand well beyond his administration. Herein, we explore indications of post-Trump era trajectories of QAnon from a social movement perspective, examining preliminary evidence of movement adaptation and change to shifting political conditions. These conditions include the political pressure exerted on major social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to tamp down on misinformation freely circulated by QAnon followers, the election of Joe Biden and the transition to a new administration in the White House, the emergence of a QAnon religion, and the spreading influence of QAnon abroad, adapted and revised for different political environments.