Facebook removes hundreds of QAnon groups, citing public safety risks

The worlds biggest social network, saying it was expanding its policy on perceived risks to public safety, also imposed restrictions on the remaining 1,950 public and private QAnon groups it could find.

Hundreds of thousands of Facebook users are known to belong to one or more QAnon groups, but Facebook declined to give more precise figures.

Facebook also removed 980 groups that it said encouraged rioting, a majority seen as generally right-wing militias but a substantial number identified as part of the leftist antifa movement.

It centers on anonymous postings from someone using the nickname Q who claims to be a high official in the administration of President Donald Trump. Q and his most-followed supporters idolize Trump and have asserted that Democratic and Hollywood elites worship the devil, eat children, and in some cases have already been executed after secret military tribunals and replaced by actors.

A vocal QAnon supporter last week won the Republican congressional primary in a conservative Georgia district, drawing praise from Trump, who has declined to disavow the movement.

Facebook has long considered some organizations to be inherently dangerous and banned them, and some critics had urged the company to do the same with QAnon.

A Facebook spokeswoman acknowledged that QAnon followers would start new groups with new code words, and that the attempt to restrain them would be an ongoing battle.