Key QAnon influencer hosts Missouri AG to promote case that has limited government's ability to discuss misinformation with tech platforms

The influencer also spoke with the attorney general of Louisiana, the other state involved with the case

Written by Alex Kaplan

Published

Updated

Update (8/11/23): This article has been updated with additional information.

On August 1 and 2, QAnon influencer Tracy “Beanz” Diaz, who was a key figure behind the conspiracy theory’s spread on social media, hosted Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and allowed him to promote the case Missouri v. Biden, which has resulted in a judge barring President Joe Biden’s administration from interacting with social media platforms regarding possible misinformation.

Diaz was reportedly one of the three key figures who popularized QAnon online and organized a 2018 QAnon rally in Washington, D.C. 

On July 4, a federal judge issued an injunction in Missouri v. Biden, barring the federal government from contacting platforms and asking to remove misinformation. The judge in the case, which focuses on whether the government is constitutionally allowed to contact social media platforms to request removal of alleged misinformation, repeated right-wing claims that social media platforms have censored conservative voices — which have been repeatedly debunked. An appeals court has currently stayed that injunction.

Diaz hosted Bailey for an August 1 interview on Twitter Spaces — which has become a popular place for previously suspended accounts that owner Elon Musk reinstated, including Diaz, to spread misinformation on the platform. During the interview, Bailey told Diaz that the lawsuit was “the most important First Amendment suit in at least a generation,” and Diaz said she had been “kind of pounding the pavement” regarding the lawsuit.

Beginning of Tracy Diaz’s Twitter Space with Andrew Bailey

From an August 1, 2023, Twitter Space hosted by Tracy Diaz

TRACY DIAZ (HOST): OK, hi everyone. Thanks for joining us today. I’m super excited about this Space. I’ve had several Spaces about this case, and I’m really honored to be joined by Attorney General Andrew Bailey from Missouri to work with us on this. They’ve never done a Space before. I sent the invite for them to speak. They have my phone number. So if you have a problem, attorney general, just shoot me a text real quick and I will work with you to get this up and running. We have a couple questions from folks really eager to hear your perspective on things. And it’s going to be good stuff for sure. 

…

So thanks for being here today. Super awesome of you to spend the time. Everybody in this Space is very interested in this case.

…

ANDREW BAILEY (MISSOURI ATTORNEY GENERAL): Yeah, well, first of all, thank you so much for having me on and the opportunity to chat with you. And this is the most important First Amendment suit in at least a generation.

…

But, you know, again, this [is] frightening stuff, and we're not going to let Joe Biden destroy the First Amendment.

DIAZ: Which is awesome. And, you know, I’ve been kind of pounding the pavement on this.

At the end of the Twitter Space, Diaz asked Bailey to say something “hopeful about the outcome” of the lawsuit to her followers.

End of Tracy Diaz’s Twitter Space with Andrew Bailey

From an August 1, 2023, Twitter Space hosted by Tracy Diaz

TRACY DIAZ (HOST): Really gracious of you to give us a half hour of your time today. We're about three minutes out. Is there anything that you would like to say to all the folks here listening and who will listen to this after we’re done about, you know, being hopeful about the outcome of this or keeping faith in the Justice Department, at least for the litigation of this case and what it means? 

ANDREW BAILEY (MISSOURI ATTORNEY GENERAL): Well, we’re not going to let up. Again, we’re going to continue to fight to preserve the First Amendment right to free speech in America. You know, at the end of the day, I served in the United States Army in the war on terror and took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. I was willing to put my life on the line to do it. Took that fight to the battlefield in the war on terror. That’s an oath I’ll never give up and it’s a fight I’m proud to be leading on behalf of the state of Missouri in the courtrooms across this nation, in the state of Missouri today. 

DIAZ: Thank you so much. This has been really awesome. I really appreciate your time. All of us in here are following this daily. And a lot of people are really invested in it because it’s so important. So I appreciate you being here. Really, really awesome. 

BAILEY: Well, thanks for having me on. Look forward to giving an update here in the coming days, weeks, and months.

Bailey also appeared on Diaz’s podcast on August 2, when Diaz complained that she had been banned from multiple platforms, and asked for how to “rectify what’s happened.” In response, Bailey expressed concern about “how many listeners do you have that were deprived of the information that you would have gotten to them.”

From the August 2, 2023, edition of Dark to Light

TRACY DIAZ (HOST): But me, I was censored off of Twitter. I’ve been censored off of Facebook. I’ve been debanked. I’ve been all — I can’t use PayPal. I’m censored. What — if this goes the way we think it will and you win, what does the everyday American — how can they rectify what’s happened to them, based on the [UNINTELLIGIBLE]?

ANDREW BAILEY (MISSOURI ATTORNEY GENERAL): Well, first of all, we can all celebrate the fact that we get our First Amendment right to free speech back. I mean, I think that was my tweet on July 4, like happy birthday, America, you get your First Amendment free speech back and we’ll keep fighting to do that. The wall of separation between tech and state is absolutely essential to protect all of our rights. 

And, you know, whether there’s class certification or not, it is a nationwide injunction, and we’ll keep pushing forward with that nationwide injunction. It’s the state of Missouri v. Biden, Louisiana is on board and certainly there are private plaintiffs, but all Americans who have been censored on Big Tech social media platforms and any American — it’s not just those speakers who have been censored. That’s the important thing to remember, too. You might have been speaking, but how many listeners do you have that were deprived of the information that you would have gotten to them? It's the hearers of the information. And so it’s an exponential number of individuals whose constitutional rights to say and hear what they choose, absent government censorship, those rights have been violated, and that’s why the nationwide injunction is so important, and we’ll keep fighting to achieve that objective.

DIAZ: This is the most important civil rights case in modern history, hands down. There’s no doubt about it. I was saying it the day you filed the complaint and people are finally starting to catch up with how important this is. Attorney general, thank you so much for joining us today.

BAILEY: Thank you so much for having me on.

On August 11, Diaz also aired an interview with Louisiana attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Landry, who filed the suit with Bailey. During the interview — which was apparently recorded soon after the state presented arguments in a federal appeals court on August 10 — Landry claimed the federal government wanted to target “Tracy’s opinion” and promoted how to get involved with his gubernatorial campaign.

From the August 11, 2023, edition of Dark to Light

TRACY DIAZ (HOST): So, good morning, everyone. We are joined today by attorney general of the great state of Louisiana, Jeff Landry. And it’s so awesome to have you here right on the heels of this hearing in the 5th Circuit where the government is fighting free speech in America. So we’ll just jump right into it. Give us your thoughts broadly on how you think this hearing on this temporary injunction went today.

JEFF LANDRY (LOUISIANA ATTORNEY GENERAL): Look, I mean, it is unbelievable … that the government continues to defend the violation of American citizens’ free speech. When you break down this injunction at its core, this injunction really is just a reinstatement of the First Amendment. It just says, look, the government is absolutely, completely free to go out and to opine on things. So the White House press secretary can go out and say, “Hey, look, we think that there are some things on social media that are not correct. We would urge Americans to take a look at that.” Right? 

DIAZ: Very simple. Very simple. 

LANDRY: Nothing wrong with that. But they want more. They want the ability to go and say, “You know what? We just don't like Tracy’s opinion. And so, please take her down because it doesn’t align with our opinion.”