- John McAfee's Instagram account posted a picture of the letter "Q" following his suicide Wednesday.
- It appeared to be a reference to the QAnon conspiracy theory.
- McAfee's account is no longer available. Instagram has not responded to a request for comment.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
John McAfee's Instagram account seems to have been taken down after posting an apparent reference to the QAnon conspiracy theory following the cybersecurity software founder's death on Wednesday.
McAfee, 75, died by suicide in a Barcelona jail on Wednesday after learning that Spain's National Court had approved his extradition to the US to face tax evasion and fraud charges, his lawyer told Reuters.
Within 30 minutes of English-language news outlets reporting McAfee's death, his Instagram account posted a picture of the letter "Q," the Independent reported.
-Mike Rothschild (@rothschildmd) June 23, 2021
The letter appeared to be a reference to the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, which is based on the false notion that former President Donald Trump was attempting to take down a "deep state" cabal of human traffickers and pedophiles.
McAfee's Instagram has since been removed. Instagram did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Shortly after the "Q" post went up, the company told Insider it was "looking into" the post.
It was not immediately clear who had control of McAfee's Instagram account. Insider has contacted McAfee's wife, Janice, and his lawyer for comment.
In 2019, when McAfee was jailed on different charges, another post on his Instagram account implied that it was being run by someone on his team, according to The Daily Beast.
"We are under good information our dear friend John McAfee is being unlawfully detained by authorities. We thank everyone for the outpouring of support," the post from 2019 read, according to The Daily Beast.
McAfee had been jailed in Barcelona since October, while he waited a decision on the extradition request.
His last post on Instagram - an image that said "Free McAfee" - was published immediately following that arrest. McAfee appeared to remain active on Twitter, including a post on June 16 in which he refuted the accusation that he had hid cryptocurrency earnings.
While Spain's National Court had signed off on his transfer to the US on Wednesday, it had not been finalized.
According to the Independent, the Spanish Council of Ministers had yet to approve the extradition and McAfee still had the opportunity to appeal the National Court decision.
McAfee has long been a focus of conspiracy theorists.
He previously posted tweets implying he knew the identity of the person behind the QAnon movement.
In 2019, he also got a tattoo that said "$WHACKD," telling his followers on Twitter to be skeptical if he was ever reported to have died by suicide.
-John McAfee (@officialmcafee) November 30, 2019
"Getting subtle messages from U.S. officials saying, in effect: 'We're coming for you McAfee! We're going to kill yourself.' I got a tattoo today just in case. If I suicide myself, I didn't. I was whackd. Check my right arm," the post read.
The hashtag "#JohnMcAfeeDidntKillHimself" started spreading on social media after news of McAfee's death on Wednesday. QAnon followers spread a similar theory when the convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein died of suicide in jail in 2019.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/3jaMUjx
No comments:
Post a Comment