Resist the Mainstream — a right-wing site founded and run by a native of North Macedonia — appears to have partnered with at least a dozen QAnon influencers and QAnon-connected figures, who have promoted the site and its content to their followers since at least 2021. 

Resist the Mainstream was originally established as “a content farm run by two individuals from North Macedonia,” according to a 2020 report from the Election Integrity Partnership. The organization also reported that individuals involved with the site were connected to the North Macedonian town of Veles, which became known as a hub for online disinformation and hyperpartisan content aimed at Americans during the 2016 presidential election campaign. (Bloomberg also reported that Resist the Mainstream’s founder, Rumen Naumovski, “is reportedly a contemporary of the group of teenagers from Veles.”) 

After the Election Integrity Partnership released its report, accounts for Resist the Mainstream and its affiliated domains were blocked on some social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. But, as noted by Bloomberg last September, the site “built a massive following on so-called alt tech spaces—platforms like Truth Social, Gettr, Gab and Rumble,” and “most of Naumovski’s writers, editors and staffers in marketing and development” were by then “based in the US.”

The site’s success appears to be partly a result of its apparent strategy of partnering with QAnon influencers and other far-right extremists, who have promoted the site to their followers. A Media Matters review found that at least a dozen QAnon-connected figures promoted Resist the Mainstream on social media, with almost all of them posting nearly identical content. 

This content consisted of an image featuring a photo of the QAnon-connected figure along with text promoting a Resist the Mainstream social media channel — often “I highly recommend that you JOIN the Resist the Mainstream Channel” or similar language promoting a backup social media channel for the site.

Some QAnon-connected figures repeatedly posted the images, including QAnon-connected election denial activist Patrick Byrne; QAnon influencer Nicholas Veniamin; QAnon influencer Richard Potcner, known online as “Richard Citizen Journalist”; and far-right podcaster Stew Peters. Also, some of the posts were forwarded from an account apparently affiliated with Resist the Mainstream called RTM Moderator.

One QAnon influencer, Brian Cates, has even openly admitted to a partnership with Resist the Mainstream, writing in February 2022 that “I agreed to take on a total of 3 sponsors” to “advertise products on my channel,” naming Resist the Mainstream as one of them. An entity called Resist the Mainstream Admin was also listed as an administrator on Cates’ social media channel and Cates repeatedly shared content from the site. 

Other figures that have promoted the site and listed “Resist the Mainstream Admin” as an administrator on their accounts included The Patriot Voice, which is the channel for QAnon influencer John Sabal (known online as “QAnon John”), and Freedom Force Battalion, which is a QAnon-supporting group apparently led by QAnon influencer Melissa Redpill The World. The Patriot Voice and Freedom Force Battalion promoted and/or repeatedly shared content from the site.

Additional ties between Resist the Mainstream and QAnon-connected figures include:

• Whiplash, a QAnon influencer who has previously spread antisemitism and helped promote the QAnon JFK Dallas cult, has repeatedly shared content from Resist from Mainstream.

• Charlie Ward, an antisemitic QAnon show host, has repeatedly shared content from Resist the Mainstream.

• QAnon-connected election denial activist Seth Keshel posted that Resist the Mainstream had “helped me clean up the spam in my comments” while urging people to follow the site. 

• Wendy Rogers, an Arizona state senator who has promoted QAnon, similarly wrote that the site had “helped me clean up the spam on my channel.”

According to Federal Elections Commission records, Naumovski also donated to the 2022 campaign of Ron Watkins, the former 8kun administrator and Arizona congressional candidate who has been suspected of running the “Q” account for at least a period of time. Naumovski’s donations were “the largest reported contribution to Watkins’ campaign in the first quarter of 2022.” In the weeks after Naumovski’s donations, Watkins urged followers on social media to follow Resist the Mainstream at least twice, using the same language others had posted.

Other far-right figures beyond the QAnon movement have also promoted Resist the Mainstream on social media, seemingly partnering with the site as well. Jane Ruby, an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, has repeatedly posted the same promotional language others used. And in March, Republican operative Roger Stone and Resist the Mainstream announced a partnership in which Stone would “help promote” the site, which he has been doing on social media. 

Some of these apparent partnerships ended after Resist the Mainstream allegedly plagiarized an article from a site whose editor-in-chief, Tracy “Beanz” Diaz, was one of the key figures to popularize QAnon.