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YouTube Launches Major New Crackdown on QAnon

THAT ESCALATED Q-UICKLY

The site said on Thursday that it would delete content that targets people with “conspiracy theories that have been used to justify real-world violence.”

Will Sommer

Updated Oct. 15, 2020 10:44AM ET / Published Oct. 15, 2020 10:59AM ET

YouTube launched a new crackdown on QAnon videos on Thursday, dealing another major setback to the pro-Trump conspiracy movement one week after Facebook launched its own purge of QAnon accounts.

In its announcement, YouTube said it would delete “content that targets an individual or group with conspiracy theories that have been used to justify real-world violence.”

That description, the site notes, would apply to QAnon, which the FBI considers a source of potential domestic terrorism. QAnon believers have been charged with a number of crimes that appear to be inspired by their support of the conspiracy theory, including two murders, a terrorist, and child abductions.

“Today we're further expanding both our hate and harassment policies to prohibit content that targets an individual or group with conspiracy theories that have been used to justify real-world violence,” YouTube said in a statement. “One example would be content that threatens or harrasses someone by suggesting they are complicit in one of these harmful conspiracies, such as QAnon or Pizzagate.”

It’s not clear how many videos will be deleted under the new policy, which YouTube plans to start enforcing today. But the prohibition on alleging that people or groups are involved in the cabal-like conspiracy sketched out by QAnon could result in a massive purge of QAnon videos, although it’s not clear how prevalent QAnon content is on the site.

The new YouTube policy doesn’t qualify as an official QAnon ban, but YouTube expects that it will drastically impact the QAnon community on the site. An earlier YouTube crackdown in 2019 resulted in tens of thousands of QAnon videos being deleted, while a change to the site's algorithms caused recommendations pushing people to QAnon channels to plunge, according to the platform.

The new policy changes come three days after YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki refused to commit to a full QAnon ban in an interview, saying instead that YouTube was “looking very closely at QAnon.” YouTube had become an even more important base for QAnon believers after the Facebook ban forced QAnon promoters to look for other platforms to host their content.

Almost since its start in late 2017, QAnon has thrived on YouTube. A 24/7 YouTube livestream about QAnon called “Patriot’s Soapbox” became one of QAnon’s earliest forums, and has become influential enough on the right that Republican candidates for Congress appear on it.

Viral YouTube videos with names like “Out of Shadows” and “The Plan to Save the World” packaged QAnon content in a more visually appealing way, pulling in new adherents and earning praise from celebrities like former baseball pitcher Curt Schilling.

QAnon groups have also used YouTube to harass people. Former actor Isaac Kappy rose to fame in QAnon-world with YouTube videos accusing various Hollywood celebrities, without evidence, of being involved in Satanic pedophile rituals. While Kappy had no evidence for his claims, the videos were viewed as foundational “proof” in the QAnon community, creating bogus pedophile allegations that continue to inspire threats against the figures Kappy targeted.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/youtube-launches-major-new-crackdown-on-qanon?source=articles&via=rss

Trump ally running for Congress believes in baseless QAnon

sex-trafficking conspiracy

Angela Stanton King, who is working to help president win Black

voters, confirmed her views to the Guardian

Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone in Atlanta

Thu 15 Oct 2020 11.01 EDT

A Republican congressional candidate and high-profile ally in Donald Trump’s fight to win over Black voters has admitted to believing a baseless QAnon-related conspiracy theory that the online furniture retailer Wayfair is secretly selling trafficked children over the internet as part of a deep-state plot.

Angela Stanton King, who is running in Atlanta, Georgia, for the congressional seat once held by the late civil rights icon John Lewis, told the Guardian in an on-camera interview she believed the debunked conspiracy theory while continuing to deny she was a follower of QAnon.

When asked if she believed the retailer was involved in a global pedophilia conspiracy, she replied: “You know they are. You saw it. You watch the news just like I did.” The candidate then ended the interview, being taped as part of the Guardian’s Anywhere But Washington series.

“I don’t know anything about QAnon. You know more than I know,” King said as she walked away.

The Texas electorate is changing – but could Biden really flip the state?

Stanton King is one of a number of Republican congressional candidates with ties to the far right, antisemitic conspiracy theory. She has almost no chance of winning her race in Georgia’s fifth congressional district, which has been held by Democrats with overwhelming margins for decades. But elsewhere in the state, Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican candidate for the 14th congressional district and an outspoken promoter of QAnon, looks set to win a seat in Congress.

Donald Trump has himself praised QAnon followers as patriots who “love America” and declined opportunities to debunk the false theories.

Stanton King has used her social media presence to push false theories linked to Qanon, including suggesting that the Black Lives Matter movement is “a major cover up for PEDOPHILIA and HUMAN TRAFFICKING”. She also reiterated a QAnon rallying cry related to the so-called “Storm”, a day of reckoning when, followers believe, Donald Trump will reveal the malefactors in the deep state. “THE STORM IS HERE,” she tweeted on 6 August this year.

When asked to explain this post, Stanton King once again denied being a follower of the movement and stated: “It was raining that day.”

Weather reports on 6 August in Atlanta indicate it was hot with no precipitation.

Advocates on the ground in Georgia and elsewhere have reported an uptick in disinformation associated with the conspiracy theory movement during this election cycle.

More at Link:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/15/angela-stanton-king-qanon-conspiracy-theory

>>11084107

I know and it's fucking glorious!

YouTube bans QAnon, other conspiracy content that targets individuals

YouTube said it would be enforcing the updated policy immediately, and plans to “ramp up in the weeks to come.”

Oct. 15, 2020, 10:59 AM EDT

By Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins

YouTube said Thursday that it would no longer allow content that targets individuals and groups with conspiracy theories, specifically QAnon and its antecedent, "pizzagate."

“Today, we are taking another step in our efforts to curb hate and harassment by removing more conspiracy theory content used to justify real-world violence,” the company announced on its blog.

The new rules, an expansion of YouTube’s existing hate and harassment policies, will prohibit content that “threatens or harrasses someone by suggesting they are complicit in one of these harmful conspiracies, such as QAnon or Pizzagate,” the post read.

YouTube said it would be enforcing the updated policy immediately and plans to “ramp up in the weeks to come.”

YouTube’s move to rid the platform of QAnon content follows similar recent changes by other social media platforms. In July, Twitter removed QAnon accounts and restricted QAnon content. Last week, Facebook said it would remove groups, pages and Instagram accounts that identified with QAnon.

QAnon is a conspiracy theory that baselessly claims high-profile Democrats and Hollywood celebrities are ritually sacrificing children as part of a cabal that President Donald Trump is fighting. Online, QAnon followers relentlessly attack public and private figures they imagine to be part of the satanic cabal. Some followers have taken their violent fantasies into the real world, allegedly committing violent crimes, including murder, a fact that moved the F.B.I. to label it a potential domestic terror threat in 2019.