Facebook on Wednesday banned about 900 pages and groups and 1,500 ads linked to the pro-Trump conspiracy theory QAnon, part of a sweeping action that also limited the reach of more than 10,000 Instagram pages and nearly 2,000 Facebook groups clicked on ‘ the baseless conspiracy theory that has spawned real world violence.
Facebook also took down thousands of accounts, pages and groups as part of what it called a ‘policy extension’, which seeks to curb violent rhetoric linked to QAnon, political militias and protest groups such as antifa.
QAnon is a comprehensive, unfounded conspiracy theory that claims that President Donald Trump is secretly saving the world from a group of prominent satanic cannibals who run the world. The group has been linked to several violent, criminal incidents, including a hijacking of trains, kidnappings, a police chase and a murder.
The new policy states that “Pages, groups and Instagram accounts associated with these movements and organizations will be deleted if they chat about potential violence.”
QAnon, militia movements and violent movements linked to protests will no longer allow ads to be bought on Facebook. QAnon ads, which often print merchandise, were allowed on the platform for Wednesday’s announcement.
Facebook will now downgrade QAnon, militia and anarchist protest groups on users’ news feeds and in the Facebook and Instagram search engines. The groups and accounts will no longer appear in the “recommendations” sidebar on similar pages. The new ban will also ban fundraising based on hashtags related to these movements on Facebook and Instagram.
In the last month, since supporters of the group were largely banned from Twitter, co-believers of QAnon bought the hashtag “#SaveTheChildren” as a means of evading connections and otherwise recruiting apolitical followers.
A Facebook spokesperson said the enforcement actions will continue as the company works to develop its strategy.
“This does not mean that we have all agreed that we still want to limit,” the spokesman said. “We know 100 percent that they will change their terminology. We do not think we will change a switch and this will not be discussed in a week. “
