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Reuters
Facebook has removed thousands of groups and accounts as limited to sharing and promoting the QAnon collaboration theory.
It is part of a new policy aimed at limiting the risks to public safety posed by QAnon, “offline anarchist groups” and military organizations in the US.
The company said it had removed “more than 790 groups, 100 pages and 1,500 ads linked to QAnon”.
It also placed restrictions on more than 1,950 groups and 440 pages.
More than 10,000 Instagram accounts associated with the movement are also restricted.
QAnon is a conspiracy theory that believes that US President Donald Trump is waging a secret war against a “deep state” network of pedophiles who are powerful government, business and media figures.
Asked what he thought of QAnon at a news conference, President Trump said he did not know much about it, saying, “I understand that they like me very much, which I appreciate,” comments that some have interpreted as stationary approval for the joint venture.
What action has Facebook taken?
As well as targeting the QAnon conspiracy, Facebook said it also removed content from other “militia organizations and those inciting riots,” including some anti-fascist groups.
It said it had grown concerned about groups that “committed violent acts, showed they had weapons and suggested they would use them, or had individual followers with patterns of violent behavior”.
“Wherever we go we all”, often abbreviated as “WWG1WGA!” is one of the most popular QAnon slogans
Under the new policy, groups, pages and Instagram accounts associated with these movements will be removed if they discuss potential violence, “including if they use painted language and symbols” associated with the movement.
Facebook will still allow people to post content in support of these groups and movements, although it will limit “their ability to organize”.
This means that these pages and accounts are not recommended for users, the ranking of their content in news feeds is reduced, and titles and hashtags associated with it will be restricted in search results.
In addition, Facebook will prohibit groups from placing ads or selling products, and bans funds in their support.
What is QAnon?
By Shayan Sardarizadeh and Jack Goodman, BBC anti-disinformation team
QAnon launched in October 2017 on the anonymous 4chan message board. One user claimed to have top-down content within the U.S. government and signed their posts anonymously as “Q” – hence the name QAnon. Q communicates in cryptic messages and claims he is directly involved in a secret Trump-led investigation of a worldwide network of child abusers.
QAnon followed up on the 2016 “pizza gate” saga – a false theory about Democratic politicians running a pedophile ring out of a Washington Pizza restaurant.
Influencers of QAnon have large audiences on social media. They encourage followers to “do their own research” – in other words, watch YouTube videos and talk to other supporters – to solve Q’s puzzles. In its nearly three years of existence, the conspiracy has attracted enormous traffic on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Reddit, attracting hundreds of thousands of dedicated followers. This includes celebrities and dozens of candidates running for the U.S. Congress this year.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Q influencers spread unsubstantiated theories about coronavirus, calling it a hoax of “deep state,” and promoting misinformation about face masks and vaccines.
Last month, both Twitter and TikTok also hit QAnon content.
Twitter banned thousands of accounts and said it would block QAnon URLs, while TikTok removed hashtags that indicated QAnon videos.
The FBI last year issued a warning about “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists” and ordered QAnon to face a potential domestic extremist threat.
Has Trump signed QAnon?
President Trump was asked about QAnon at a press conference on Wednesday.
When asked to comment on the well-deserved theory of QAnon followers that he secretly saves the world from a satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals, he replied: “I have not heard that, but is it meant to be a bad thing as a good thing? ”
He went on to claim “we are saving the world from the radical-left philosophy that will destroy this country”.
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Mr. Trump has in the past retweeted content from well-known QAnon sympathizers, such as tweets with hashtags used by believers in the conspiracy.
Some QAnon supporters are running for office, including the Republican candidate for Congress for Georgia.
