Drew Harwell

Around 80,000 electric utility customers in Texas remained in the dark and without heat Saturday morning as the state awoke to temperatures in the 20s.

The groups argue the software "would facilitate the mass tracking of each person’s movements in public space — something intolerable in a free and open society."

The chaos of WallStreetBets and the QAnon-fueled storming of the U.S. Capitol showcased the reality-shaping power of Internet communities. Who’s supposed to stop them when they go too far?

As talk on the message board grew increasingly violent, the Army veteran who owned its domain abruptly pulled it offline. His former co-moderators call him a “sellout” who went “rogue”

The Reddit forum that helped kick off the frenzy has given way to anxiety, financial bloodshed and infighting: This is not a “Disney ferry ‘One-Wish-comes-true’ show,” one poster said. “This is the place where one wants to enjoy the sado-masochistic part of the [expletive] capitalistic system we are living in."

Once the face of Huawei in Denmark, Tommy Zwicky said he could no longer defend the company after the Washington Post revealed its work on a system that police could use to track minorities.

Trump’s personal lawyer sought to turn unfounded conspiracy theories and voter fraud videos into online moneymakers, attorneys said in a lawsuit seeking more than $1.3 billion in damages.

Forums central to spreading QAnon and supporting former President Trump have become fractured or gone offline entirely since then Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, raising questions about their long-term viability.

With Q having vanished and Trump out of office, far-right extremist groups are targeting disillusioned believers online in hopes of further radicalizing them to a new cause.

While some QAnon disciples gave way to doubt as Trump's term ended, others doubled down on blind belief or strained to see new coded messages in the Inauguration Day’s events.