Facebook on Tuesday banned all forms of content related to the radical fringe conspiracy group QAnon. The social media giant's move is a significant escalation to its earlier decision to remove or restrict groups and accounts sharing and promoting QAnon material.
Releasing a statement on Tuesday, Facebook stated that its staff had already begun removing content and deleting groups and pages. "Starting today, we will remove any Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content," the company statement said.
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QAnon is considered a conspiracy theory which says US President Trump is waging a war against elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles. "Our Dangerous Organizations Operations team will continue to enforce this policy and proactively detect content for removal instead of relying on user reports," the Facebook statement added.
Previously on August 19, Facebook had announced a set of measures designed to disrupt the ability of QAnon and militarised social movements to operate and organise on its platform. This had resulted in the removal of over 1,500 pages and groups for QAnon in the first month itself.
Apart from this, over 6,500 pages and groups tied to more than 300 Militarised Social Movements were removed too from all platforms of Facebook. However, Facebook said that the removal process of more pages and groups for QAnon will take time and they need to continue it in the coming days and weeks.
Citing the example of its updated policy against the promotion of violence, Facebook said, "While we’ve removed QAnon content that celebrates and supports violence, we’ve seen other QAnon content tied to different forms of real-world harm, including recent claims that the west coast wildfires were started by certain groups, which diverted attention of local officials from fighting the fires and protecting the public."
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The social media giant informed that till now they have 'removed over 790 groups, 100 pages and 1,500 ads tied to QAnon from Facebook. Also, it blocked over 300 hashtags across Facebook and Instagram, and additionally imposed restrictions on over 1,950 groups and 440 pages on Facebook and over 10,000 accounts on Instagram.
Among other updates, Facebook had blocked militia organisations like Antifa and removed over 980 groups, 520 pages and 160 ads. Over 1,400 hashtags related to these groups and organisations on Instagram have also been restricted.
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