Ron Watkins

Ronald Watkins (born April 18, 1987), also known by his online pseudonym CodeMonkeyZ, is an American conspiracy theorist and site administrator of the imageboard website 8kun (formerly known as 8chan). He has played a major role in spreading the discredited far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, and has promulgated conspiracy theories that widespread election fraud led to Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. He is the son of Jim Watkins, the owner and operator of 8kun. Numerous journalists and researchers believe that one or both of the Watkinses know the identity of, or are themselves, "Q", the person or group of people behind QAnon. Watkins served as site administrator for 8kun from 2016 until he announced he had resigned in November 2020, though some have questioned the veracity of his resignation. Early life Watkins was born in 1987. His father, Jim Watkins, is a former member of the United States Army, and Watkins grew up moving often because of his father's military service. His mother, Ton Sun Watkins, is from South Korea, and his parents met when his father was stationed there. They divorced when Watkins was a teenager, at which point Watkins began to live mostly with his mother.