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In the US election campaign, QAnon recently gained media attention, also because numerous Republican politicians openly flirt with the conspiracy theory movement. Now Facebook is hardening its approach. In the future, all Facebook pages and groups, as well as all Instagram accounts that represent QAnon, will be removed, as the online network announced on Tuesday.
In mid-August, Facebook initially only announced that it would take action against QAnon supporters if they threatened to use violence or spoke out about it.
The central claim of QAnon supporters is that there is a conspiracy against US President Donald Trump in the deepest layers of the US government apparatus. They also often claim that prominent leaders of the Democratic Party in the United States have been treated with hormones made from the blood of children. Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, billionaire George Soros, and various Hollywood stars are involved in this. Many QAnon messages are anti-Semitic.
Even President Donald Trump had not distanced himself from conspiracy theorists in the past. On the contrary: in late August, when specifically asked, he missed the opportunity to differentiate himself from the dangerous fantasies of QAnon’s followers. “As I understand it, they like me very much, which I appreciate,” Trump said at the time. He doesn’t know much about movement. But he heard it was gaining popularity. And: “I heard that it is people who love our country.”
The president sees no problem with the content
When specifically asked by a reporter that QAnon supporters believed he was saving the world “from a satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals,” Trump said, “I didn’t hear that. But is that supposed to be a good or bad thing? help save the world from trouble, I’m ready to do it. ” His government is already saving the world from “radical left philosophy.”
In the US and other countries, pressure on large online network operators to take action against hateful messages and false messages has increased significantly in recent months. The companies took a series of measures against such content. Facebook, which is even exposed to a large-scale advertising boycott, responded and announced an expansion of its action against hatred and agitation.
