The Other Pandemic: How QAnon Contaminated the World with James Ball

Join us on March 6th 7pm for a talk followed by a QnA with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist James Ball!

About The Other Pandemic: How QAnon Contaminated the World

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist James Ball takes us into the depths of the internet to trace the origins and rapid ascent of QAnon the movement that mutated from a niche online conspiracy theory into the world's first digital pandemic.

Imagine a deadly pathogen that once created could infect any person in any part of the globe within seconds. No need to wait for travellers trains or air traffic to spread it all you need is an internet connection. In this gripping investigation Pulitzer Prize winner James Ball decodes the cryptic language of the online right and with a surgeon's precision tracks the spread of QAnon the world's first digital pandemic.

QAnon began as an internet community dedicated to supporting President Trump and intent on outing a global cabal of human traffickers. A short cryptic message posted by an anonymous user to a niche internet forum in 2017 was the spark that ignited a global movement. What started as a macabre game of virtual make-believe quickly spiralled into the spread of virulently hateful dangerous messaging – which turned into tragic violent actions.

Incoherent chaotic free from agendas: QAnon is a one-size-fits all cult conspiracy. From a standoff at the Hoover Dam to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on 6 January 2021 to protesting COVID-19 lockdowns this digital pandemic has spread globally and shows no signs of stopping. In The Other Pandemic Ball takes us into the niche pathways through which these digital pathogens spread mutate and infect people all across the globe – but he also argues that the prognosis doesn't have to be dire. He shows us that it is possible to treat and cure this virus in order to build up our digital immune systems and be better prepared to survive the next wave.

About James Ball

James Ball is an award winning journalist broadcaster and author fellow of the think-tank Demos and the political editor of The New European.

He has worked as the global editor of TBIJ a special correspondent at BuzzFeed UK and special projects editor at The Guardian where he played a key role in the Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the NSA leaks by Edward Snowden as well as the offshore leaks HSBC Files Reading the Riots and Keep it in the Ground projects. At WikiLeaks he was closely involved in Cablegate – the publication of 250000 classified US embassy cables in 2010 – as well as working on two documentaries based on the Iraq War Logs.

James is the author of multiple books including "Post-Truth and "The Tangled Web We Weave: Inside The Shadow System That Shapes the Internet”. His most recent book “The Other Pandemic: How Qanon Contaminated The World” was published by Bloomsbury in July 2023.

Host or Publisher Patrick Jones