FACEBOOK IMPOSES NEW CURBS ON QANON
Platform steps up enforcement against conspiracy theory
Facebook imposed sweeping new sanctions on the QAnon conspiracy theory on Tuesday, expanding its policy to remove all affiliated groups and pages — and all accounts on the Facebook subsidiary Instagram — even if they don’t violate other policies by inciting violence or trafficking in hate speech.
The move significantly expands an enforcement action in August that targeted more than 3,000 pages and groups but stopped short of a full ban. But the content morphed almost instantaneously, prompting Tuesday’s more sweeping action, the company said in an unsigned blog post Tuesday afternoon.
“QAnon messaging changes very quickly and we see networks of supporters build an audience with one message and then quickly pivot to another. We aim to combat this more effectively with this update that strengthens and expands our enforcement against the conspiracy theory movement,” the company said in its blog post.
The ban encompasses all Facebook pages and groups devoted to QAnon, as well as
Instagram accounts that have names representing the philosophy. It does not reach individual Facebook profiles or posts, meaning conversation about QAnon will hardly be forbidden on the platform.
This action comes after more than two years of mounting evidence that the QAnon conspiracy is rife with violent, hateful themes that regularly violated policies across Silicon Valley and also inspired numerous realworld crimes.
“Ultimately the real test will be whether Facebook actually takes measures to enforce these new policies — we’ve seen in a myriad of other contexts, including with respect to right-wing militias like the Boogaloos, that Facebook has repeatedly failed to consistently enforce its existing policies,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D
Va., who has been pushing Facebook for more action against QAnon.
At the core QAnon, which began in October 2017, are baseless allegations that Democratic officials and Hollywood celebrities engaged in unconscionable crimes, including raping and eating children, while seeking to subvert the Constitution. President Donald Trump, the conspiracy theory holds, is quietly battling these evils.
The “Q” of QAnon is supposedly a high-level government official privy to these secrets because of a top-secret security clearance. The shadowy figure speaks only on the site 8kun, a successor to the now-closed 8chan, but the information for years spread almost instantly across mainstream social media platforms, powered by those analyzing Q’s pronouncements.
The conspiracy theory has grown particularly popular on the political right, with more than 70 Republican candidates for office embracing at least some elements of QAnon this year, according to tracking by liberal research group Media Matters. One adherent, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is virtually guaranteed to win a seat in Congress in November’s election.
QAnon this year has played a key role in spreading disinformation related to COVID-19.
Facebook moved quickly on Tuesday to scrub QAnon content that had been widespread on the platform. A page with 130,000 followers, called “Q Pin” and devoted to “all things Q,” remained active on the platform six days after The Washington Post had raised questions about violent language appearing on its posts. It was removed within an hour of the announcement of the new policy.
Three times last month the page shared an “Army for Trump” website seeking to recruit volunteers to stand watch at the polls, among other responsibilities. On one post, a user commented to call Democrats “dead ducks in the water.” Another user falsely suggested Democrats had promised “Riots and Murders” surrounding the election and asked how Republicans would respond.