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SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook announced on Tuesday (October 6) a ban on all accounts linked to the conspiratorial group QAnon, as the social network tries to crack down on misinformation ahead of the heated US presidential election.
The move against QAnon on Facebook and its image-sharing platform Instagram comes as the online giant tries to avoid being used to mislead or confuse voters, as was the case during the 2016 elections that placed the president of the United States. , Donald Trump, in the White House.
“We will remove Facebook pages, groups and Instagram accounts that represent QAnon, even if they do not contain violent content,” the Internet giant said in a blog post.
Beginning with a 2017 anonymous post alleging child exploitation and bizarre political plots, the headless, bodyless movement has earned a place in Trump’s Twitter stream.
READ: Facebook and Twitter take action on Trump’s misleading COVID-19 posts
Last year, the FBI said in a report that QAnon was one of several movements that could prompt “both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts.”
The ban on QAnon accounts intensifies Facebook’s efforts to crack down on disinformation campaigns sometimes endorsed by Trump, weeks before the November 3 presidential election.
“Facebook’s decision to ban QAnon from all of its platforms is a much-needed, albeit late, step in purging the platform’s dangerous conspiracy theories,” said Anti-Defamation League Executive Director Jonathan Greenblatt.
“We hope this is a sincere effort to purge hatred and anti-Semitism from your platform, and not another knee-jerk response to pressure from members of Congress and the public.”
The moves made on Facebook and Instagram were against accounts linked to “offline anarchist groups supporting violent acts amid protests, US-based militia organizations and QAnon,” according to the blog post.
The leading social network recently banned ads that praise, support or represent militarized social movements and QAnon.
In August, Facebook removed hundreds of groups linked to QAnon and imposed restrictions on nearly 2,000 more as part of a crackdown on the renewal of violence.
Critics have charged that QAnon’s inflammatory content was spreading on Facebook despite the platform’s proclaimed effort to contain it.
READ: Facebook and Twitter fail to crack down on QAnon
SUPER FLAMES
Facebook said it tightened its ban on QAnon after noting that, despite removing posts directly promoting violence, posts from QAnon followers were tailored to avoid restrictions.
For example, QAnon used the platform to claim that certain groups started deadly wildfires on the West Coast, diverting the attention of police and firefighters.
“QAnon posts change very quickly and we see fan networks building an audience with one message and then quickly switching to another,” Facebook said.
The social network already prohibits content that calls for violence and organizations that proclaim violent missions.
QAnon’s increasingly visible and vocal followers promote a bewildering mix of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.
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Once on the fringes of the internet and focused on American politics, the movement has seen strong growth on major social media platforms this year.
The movement centered on the unfounded belief that the world is run by a clique of Satan worshipers has extended it this year to allege, without proof, that the coronavirus is a conspiracy by that group to control people using vaccines and 5G. .
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube have increased surveillance of QAnon’s content as followers try to avoid the new filters.
