Facebook removes QAnon conspiracy theory accounts across all platforms

Facebook has finally removed all accounts related to the QAnon conspiracy theory movement across all its platforms.

“Starting today, we will remove Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts,” the company said on Tuesday.

The move is seen as a strict escalation to Facebook’s earlier decision to ban or restrict groups and accounts sharing or promoting QAnon material.

QAnon is a conspiracy rumor that considers President Trump is waging a war against a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles

On Tuesday, Facebook released a statement that said its staff had begun deleting content and removing groups and pages, but that “this work will take time and will continue in the coming days and weeks”.

“Our Dangerous Organizations Operations team will continue to enforce this policy and proactively detect content for removal instead of relying on user reports,” the statement added.

Facebook said it was working on measures implemented back in August, which focused on “disrupt the ability of QAnon” to organize through and run on its networks.

That policy was enacted to limit the risks to public safety posed by QAnon, “offline anarchist groups” and, US-based militia organizations – resulted in restrictions on more than 1,950 Facebook groups and over 10,000 Instagram accounts.

This is a major action by Facebook, which has exposed how it plans to proactively remove all growing QAnon content from its platforms.

It came into light when a reporter asked Facebook’s vice-president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, why the social media network still allows QAnon to spread political misinformation to US voters and beyond using contentious hashtags like #SaveOurChildren.

Facebook’s initial crackdown on this threatening conspiracy theory focused on violent content promoted by those supporting it, deleting a number of groups and pages.

But those backing QAnon soon adapted, using new catchy hashtags to reach parent groups, popular forums, and the average Instagram feed. And the movement kept spreading.

This new move will be appreciated – but will also be very difficult to enforce, especially since QAnon has turned so vast and work under new guises.

Speaking to some US voters about how QAnon disinformation about candidates and child trafficking rings could already have affected their friends and neighbors ahead of polling day.

They said how people they know now believe totally baseless claims they’ve noticed on Instagram and Facebook about the Democrats running a global child-trafficking ring or presidential candidate Joe Biden abusing children.

Could this continue – especially the last –also be too late?

Facebook isn’t the only social media platform to take measures against the QAnon conspiracy movement.

In July, Twitter blocked thousands of accounts and said it would stop recommending content linked to QAnon in an effort to help prevent “offline harm”. It also said it would block URLs associated with the group from being shared on the platform.

What is QAnon?

The QAnon started back in 2017 when an anonymous user uploaded a series of posts on the message board 4chan. The user signed off as “Q” and claimed to hold a level of US security approval known as “Q clearance”.

These messages become popular as “Q drops” or “breadcrumbs”, often posted in cryptic language sprinkled with slogans, pledges, and pro-Trump theme.

The volume of traffic to popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit has increased since 2017, and reports are that numbers have increased during the coronavirus pandemic.

Considering social media, there are hundreds of thousands of people who believe in at least some of the strange theories spread by QAnon.

QAnon followed on from the “pizzagate” saga in 2016 – a fake theory about Democratic Party leaders running a pedophile ring out of a Washington pizza restaurant.