Facebook removes 790 QAnon groups, restricts over 10,000 Instagram accounts
The company also reportedly stated it would remove 980 groups related to the far-left organization Antifa
Facebook announced the removal of 790 QAnon-related groups from its platform and said it will restrict an additional 1,950 groups and 440 pages, along with over 10,000 Instagram accounts associated with the right-wing social media movement.
This comes after Twitter reportedly banned thousands of accounts associated with QAnon content late last month and blocked URLs associated with it from being shared.
In addition, Twitter said it would stop highlighting and recommending tweets associated with movement, according to Fox 8.
QAnon, thought to have been founded in 2017, has been tied to theories about a "deep state" attack against President Trump, involving career bureaucrats seeking to take him down.
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It’s unclear who "Q" actually is, and if he or she is just one person or multiple people. People supporting QAnon began appearing at Trump campaign rallies in 2018 and the president has retweeted QAnon-affiliated accounts dozens of times.
“We have seen growing movements that, while not directly organizing violence, have celebrated violent acts, shown that they have weapons and suggest they will use them or have individual followers with patterns of violent behavior,” Facebook said in a statement.
The big tech giant has been tracking QAnon’s online growth since May, according to two employees involved in the effort who spoke with The New York Times.
Facebook was reportedly concerned about the potential backlash that could come with removing the content and feared their actions might ultiamtely draw more attention to QAnon's cause.
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The company also stated it would remove 980 groups related to the violent far-left organization known as Antifa and will block the QAnon hashtags #digitalarmy and #thestorm, according to The Times.