Networked Counterpublics and Contentious Publicity: A Cross-Platform Analysis of QAnon on Parler and Twitter

Abstract

Extremist online movements often leverage social media affordances to shape in-group identity and influence broader publics through agenda-setting practices. This study uses QAnon as a case of a networked counterpublic to examine how these processes unfolded between 2018 and 2021. Drawing on affordance theory, we analyze how QAnon discourse activated the affordances of visibility, association, and persistence on Parler and Twitter – two platforms similar in technical features but distinct in their cultures of use. We identify differentiated affordance-activation practices that support different counterpublic functions: for example, hashtag stacking on Parler can be interpreted as contributing to identity-oriented meaning-making, whereas calls to “do your own research” on Twitter may function as epistemic invitations aimed at drawing mainstream users into conspiratorial interpretation. We further show that QAnon’s contentious publicness – the contestation of pro- and anti-QAnon claims – shifted dynamically across the movement’s developmental stages, and that identical informational resources (shared URLs) generated divergent discursive trajectories across platforms. By tracing these temporal and cross-platform dynamics, we illuminate how extremist counterpublics navigate visibility, identity work, and public contestation, offering insights for the study of political communication in an era of networked extremism.