Facebook cracks down on QAnon’s tactics

Facebook said Wednesday it is cracking down on QAnon for hijacking the Save The Children movement to push falsehoods about the exploitation of children by prominent Democrats including presidential nominee Joe Biden.

“We are taking steps to address evidence that QAnon adherents are increasingly using the issue of child safety and hashtags like #savethechildren to recruit and organize,” Facebook said.

Facebook users searching for that hashtag and related hashtags will be directed to credible child safety resources, the company said in a blog post.

QAnon content also has been “down-ranked,” meaning it’s far less visible on Facebook’s platforms.

“In addition, content about QAnon and child safety is eligible for fact-checking through our third-party factchecking program. Content that is debunked will be reduced in News Feed and filtered from Explore and hashtags on Instagram, will receive a label (so that people who see it, try to share it or already have, will see more context), and it will be rejected as an ad,” the blog post said.

Facebook said Wednesday it is banning ads that praise or support extremist conspiracy group QAnon and militia groups. In August, Facebook removed hundreds of groups, pages and ads tied to QAnon.

USA TODAY reported that QAnon has latched onto legitimate efforts to fight child abuse to expose unsuspecting Americans to its ideology.

QAnon followers believe that Trump is a messianic figure battling a “deep state” of devil-worshipping, child-molesting Democrats.

Observers say the 2016 presidential election spurred the rise of conspiracy theories once confined to the fringes. With influential figures using their social media megaphones to amplify them, incendiary falsehoods that Biden and other Democrats are pedophiles are circulating in the mainstream before the November election in an alarming break from the norms of presidential politicking.