Abstract

This paper discusses research on QAnon, a controversial conspiracy movement. Its public engagement mechanisms and discursive practices, focusing on members’ activities on Telegram, are analysed. These activities have elevated concerns about the group’s threat to democracy, prompting intelligence agencies to identify it as a potential risk. This study emphasises the need to understand QAnon’s discursive practices for safeguarding democratic foundations. The author aims to demonstrate how linguistics can aid in analysing Political and Military discourse, assisting institutions in countering destabilising movements. The research uses Open Source Intelligence techniques to analyse QAnon members’ activities, disinformation campaigns, and conspiracy theories on Telegram. Positive Discourse Analysis and Netnography allow us to investigate discourse types and construct discoursive paradigms of resistance. The study conducts quantitative and qualitative analyses on a corpus of Telegram channels items to identify recurring themes and semantic areas, shedding light on the differences between Qlobal-Change USA and Qlobal-Change Italia channels.