NSA Located a Classified QAnon-Related Record — All Three Pages Were Withheld

• The NSA has withheld a three-page classified document related to QAnon, citing national security concerns. The document was not disclosed in its entirety, and the agency did not provide details about its content or origin.
• A FOIA request sought records mentioning QAnon, and the NSA responded by revealing an internal discussion where QAnon was casually referenced as a joke. The discussion, found in an NSA system labeled “Tapioca: The Stream,” contained 23 replies from 13 people, with one mention of QAnon as a conspiracy theory.
• The released material does not constitute an analysis of QAnon but rather a workplace joke. The NSA also mentioned an earlier FOIA request by The Black Vault that found no QAnon-related records, highlighting the difference between searches directed at specific platforms and broader requests.

• The NSA’s response to the 2020 FOIA request did not establish a connection between the withheld document and QAnon. The agency cited classification reasons and exemptions, but no details were provided about the document’s content or purpose.
• The document, if it contained any substantive discussion about QAnon, would be classified under Executive Order 13526, which covers intelligence activities and vulnerabilities. The classification does not reveal the document’s content or its relevance to QAnon.
• The released QAnon reference was a casual joke, not an official analysis. The NSA’s response did not confirm whether the document was created by NSA or originated elsewhere, but it emphasized that the unclassified release showed how little a keyword can reveal about a document’s subject.
• The existence of government records discussing QAnon does not validate the claims made by QAnon. Government agencies documented QAnon as a social phenomenon, but these records do not support the conspiracy theories that underpin QAnon.

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