Citigroup fires employee who ran QAnon conspiracy website
Citigroup has sacked an employee in its technology department after it emerged he ran a popular website dedicated to the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Jason Gelinas, who worked as an information technology specialist, was identified by fact checking website Logically.ai as the operator of the website QMap.pub.
He was initially placed on leave from the investment bank but has since been fired, Bloomberg first reported.
“Mr. Gelinas is no longer employed by Citi,” Citigroup said in a statement. “Our code of conduct includes specific policies that employees are required to adhere to, and when breaches are identified, the firm takes action.”
Citi’s code of conduct states that staff members must inform managers in advance if they plan to engage in paid business activity outside the company.
Gelinas reportedly earned more than $3,000 (£2,300) a month from crowdfunding to support QMap.pub.
QAnon — far-right conspiracy theory asserting that US President Donald Trump is battling a cabal of Satanic paedophiles — has spread rapidly online in recent months.
The conspiracy is based on anonymous posts on the website 8kun — formerly known as 8can — by someone claiming to have access to high-level government inside information.
QMap served as an aggregator of so-called Q drops on 8kun. It has since been taken down, but directors visitors to another site offering similar services.
In addition to messaging forum 8kun, the conspiracy theory has been spreading on mainstream social media sites.
In August Facebook said it would remove any pages, groups and Instagram accounts for QAnon that contained discussions of potential violence.
But the platform has now updated its policy to take down all content linked to the conspiracy theory even if they contain no violent content.