dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

BREAKING

Twitter says it has begun taking sweeping actions to limit the reach of QAnon content and banned many of the conspiracy theory's followers due to ongoing problems with harassment and the dissemination of misinformation.

The sweeping enforcement action will ban QAnon-related terms from appearing in trending topics and its search feature, ban known QAnon-related URLs, and ban “swarming” of victims who are baselessly targeted by coordinated harassment campaigns pushed by its followers.

The company will classify QAnon as coordinated harmful activity in part due to an uptick in harassment targeting high-profile critics of President Donald Trump.

https://twitter.com/BreakingNews/status/1285726852900966400?s=20

>>10037723

==Twitter bans 7,000 QAnon accounts, limits 150,000 others as part of broad crackdown

The company will classify of QAnon as coordinated harmful activity in part due to an uptick in harassment targeting high-profile critics of President Donald Trump.==

Twitter announced on Tuesday it has begun taking sweeping actions to limit the reach of QAnon content and banned many of the conspiracy theory's followers due to ongoing problems with harassment and the dissemination of misinformation.

Twitter will stop recommending accounts and content related to QAnon, including in email, push, and follow recommendations and will take steps to limit content circulation in places like trends and search. This action will impact approximately 150,000 accounts, according to a spokesperson, who asked to remain unnamed due to concerns about the targeted harassment of social media employees.

The Twitter spokesperson also said the company had taken down more than 7,000 QAnon accounts in the last couple weeks for breaking its rules on targeted harassment as part of its new policy.

The spokesperson said while the targeted enforcement against QAnon fell under Twitter’s existing platform manipulation rules, its classification of QAnon as coordinated harmful activity was a new designation. The spokesperson said Twitter was taking action now because of an escalating degree of harm associated with the conspiracy theory.

Twitter plans to permanently suspend accounts that violate existing policies around platform manipulation, ban evasion and operate multiple accounts, behaviors commonly seen used by QAnon accounts, the spokesperson said. Twitter began blocking QAnon websites last week and will continue to block the distribution of QAnon-related URLs, the spokesperson said.

QAnon is a baseless right-wing conspiracy theory that centers around the belief that an anonymous tipster is revealing how President Donald Trump is leading a secret war against a so-called Deep State — a collection of political, business and Hollywood elites who worship Satan and abuse and murder children. The conspiracy theory draws its roots from Pizzagate, which claimed Hillary Clinton ran a pedophile ring outside of a Washington D.C. pizza shop.

QAnon emerged from the fringes of the internet's conspiracy community to become a recognized political phenomenon, with Trump supporters showing up at events with "Q" merchandise. Qanon followers have also been implicated in armed standoffs, attempted kidnappings, harassment and murder since the conspriacy first gained traction in in the internet in October 2017.

Last year, the FBI designated QAnon as a potential domestic terror threat. The FBI’s report on QAnon’s ties to dangerous real-world activities led in part to Twitter’s decision, a spokesperson said.

Despite no evidence and numerous predictions that failed to materialize, QAnon support has trickled into the mainstream, with numerous Republican candidates for Congress openly espousing their support for the movement.

It goes on…

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/twitter-bans-7-000-qanon-accounts-limits-150-000-others-n1234541