Facebook removes thousands of QAnon conspiracy theory pages

Additional restrictions were placed on over 1,950 Groups and 440 Pages on Facebook, as well as over 10,000 Instagram accounts.

Qanon is a conspiracy theory believing that an anonymous government insider called Q is posting secret codes on the 4chan message board /pol/ about an upcoming storm a great change they believe will happen under the Trump presidency.

They also believe that group of powerful, nefarious US politicians and organisations, including the Freemasons and the Illuminati, are seeking to bring down the Trump administration.

Security researcher Mark Burnett, examining Qanon codes, has said that they are not actual codes, just random typing, based on an analysis of the letters and numbers used in the communications.

President Trump has endorsed Republican Qanon conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene, after she won her Georgia congressional primary.

Other militia organisations, some of which have called for violence and riots, have had 980 groups, 520 Pages and 160 ads removed from Facebook.

Facebooks decision to restrict these groups comes as it expands its moderation policy to tackle groups which demonstrated significant risks to public safety but do not meet the rigorous criteria to be designated as a dangerous organisation.

The company says that it will allow people to post content that supports these movements and groups as long as it does not break Facebooks content policies but will restrict their ability to use Facebook or Facebook-owned properties to organise.

The move comes one month after Twitter took similar restrictive action against the group, shutting down thousands of accounts associated with the movement in enforcement action on behaviour that has the potential to lead to offline harm.

It also banned the extremist Boogaloo network from its platforms, but an investigation found it had been profiting off advertising from that group for months prior.

Original article
Author: The Independent

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