After the Queen passed away, a lot of conspiracies started to circulate online. Influential members of QAnon disseminate numerous unfounded claims on Telegram. Meghan Markle was the subject of numerous conspiracies as she was a popular target for royalists. For daily email delivery of the newest tech news and scoops, subscribe to our newsletter. On September 8, just after Queen Elizabeth II passed away, far-right online influencers and other users started peddling rumors about the late monarch. Much while every prominent person’s passing usually sparks a slew of frauds and myths, the Queen’s passing sparked even stranger speculations than usual.
Numerous obviously false assertions and illogical theories have gained ground, ranging from a doctored photo of Meghan Markle sporting a shirt reading “The Queen Is Dead” to QAnon influencers claiming that Donald Trump knew the Queen would pass away and warned his supporters in a coded message before it occurred.
THE BASELESS CONSPIRACY THEORIES OF THE QANON COMMUNITY EXPANDED. Adherents of QAnon, the far-right movement built around the bogus idea that there is a deep-state cabal of people traffickers that only former President Donald Trump can stop, have been spreading a number of unfounded claims. Early in September, a QAnon influencer attempted to decipher one of Trump’s all-caps Truth Social messages and said that the post time implied that there would be a “major week ahead.” The post was posted by at least one well-known QAnon influencer who has more than 40,000 followers.
It was “quite intriguing” that the Queen passed away “1776 days” after the initial Q drop, according to a QAnon influencer with over 230,000 Telegram followers who made a post that appeared to link QAnon to the monarch’s passing. (They didn’t go into detail about what that was supposed to represent.) With the addition of fireworks emotes, another QAnon influencer with over 40,000 followers shared a photo of a “Days Between Two Dates” calculator with the same message.
In the meantime, a post on the far-right, QAnon-themed Great Awakening forum received hundreds of likes and also seemed to imply that the Queen’s death was either sinister or unusual.
A post from a QAnon Telegram page was shared by a phony Telegram account for former national security adviser turned MAGA celebrity Mike Flynn, which has over 29,000 followers. The post made the absurd claim that Princess Diana, who passed away in 1997, is “coming out of the shadows” to become the new queen.
Others in the QAnon movement propagated the erroneous rumor that Queen Elizabeth II passed away years ago. A social media influencer with more than 18,000 followers published a post in which they blatantly claimed that the Queen had already passed away and that “they have now decided to make it public.”
OTHER BASELESS CONSPIRACY THEORIES TARGET MEGHAN MARKLE AND INCLUDE VACCINES. Unfounded assertions and rumors that the COVID-19 vaccination killed the Queen were another conspiracy theory that gained traction on social media. Multiple fact-checking groups refuted the assertion.
A regular target of royalists who have long painted her as a criminal attempting to split apart the British royal family, Meghan Markle was the subject of numerous popular conspiracy theories or untrue accusations.
On Twitter, a photo of Markle sporting a blouse bearing the lyrics to The Smiths’ “The Queen Is Dead” went viral. The post criticized Markle for doing so following the Queen’s passing. Markle is seen wearing a white blouse and a gray-white coat in the genuine photo, as per AFP’s Fact-Check , but the image was reverse-searched and shown to be altered.
Numerous others made irrational claims that Markle was wearing a microphone at the Queen’s burial service at Windsor Castle, citing only what looked to be wrinkling in her clothing as proof.
The passing of well-known people frequently serves as fodder for conspiracy theories and far-right movements, who try to take advantage of a significant event and distort it to fit their own reality. Recent deaths like those of that of actress Anne Heche have almost quickly been incorporated into the mythology of conspiracy theorists. The Queen appears to have provided an unusually rich wealth of information for conspiracists to further their theories as one of the most well-known figures in the entire world.
