A song claimed as an anthem by the QAnon movement before it began to be played at rallies of former President Donald Trump has been stricken from YouTube and Spotify.
The bans came after the composer of the song, Will Van De Crommert, claimed it was used without his permission.
The song “Mirrors” by Mr. Van De Crommert first came to the attention of QAnon when YouTube and Spotify user “Richard Feelgood” uploaded the track, which he called “Wwg1wga” in 2020.
That title is short for “Where We Go One We Go All,” the slogan of the QAnon movement.
Mr. Van De Crommert, however, had not authorized the YouTube and Spotify upload.
“Richard Feelgood’s claim on the song ’Mirrors’ (retitled ’Wwg1wga’) is patently false. The recordings of ’Wwg1wga’ and ’Mirrors’ are identical, and the master was unlawfully retitled, repackaged, and redistributed to streaming platforms by Richard Feelgood,” Mr. Van De Crommert told Newsweek.
Mr. Van De Crommert told Newsweek, “I am not Richard Feelgood, I do not represent Richard Feelgood, and Richard Feelgood is not a pseudonym that I have ever or will ever employ.”
Mr. Trump used the song in a video on his social media platform Truth Social on Aug. 9. In September, Mr. Trump played the song at rallies in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and North Carolina.
“They really think that it’s Mr. Trump acknowledging them. People have been talking about that ’Oh, it’s the QAnon anthem,’” author and conspiracy expert Mike Rothschild told CBS News.
Now, the composer is exploring legal action, telling NBC News that he was “not notified of any licenses for political rallies, nor did I authorize such use.”
YouTube and Spotify have now removed the video and Spotify track uploaded by Richard Feelgood.
YouTube construed the video as putting a target on Mr. Van De Crommert’s back, with a representative telling NBC News Monday that it was removed for “violating our harassment policy, which prohibits content targeting someone by suggesting they’re complicit in a conspiracy theory used to justify real-world violence.”
Spotify, meanwhile, struck the track for copyright infringement, a representative told NBC News.
The song was re-uploaded on YouTube on Saturday by user “therealdemon23” under the title “Will Van De Crommert - Mirrors.”
The description on the new video reads “#easylistening #ambientmusic #wwg1wga #trump.”
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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