Facebook removes hundreds of QAnon groups, thousands of ads

Facebook also took down thousands of accounts, pages and groups as part of what they called a policy expansion, seeking to limit violent rhetoric tied to QAnon, political militias and protest groups like antifa.

QAnon is an elaborate, unfounded conspiracy theory alleging that President Donald Trump is secretly saving the world from a group of prominent Satanic cannibals that run the world. The group has been linked to several violent, criminal incidents, including a train hijacking, kidnappings, a police chase and a murder.

Facebook will now downrank QAnon, militia and anarchist protest groups on users News Feeds and in Facebook and Instagrams search engines.

Over the last month, since supporters of the group were largely banned from Twitter, QAnon believers co-opted the hashtag #SaveTheChildren, as a means to evade bans and recruit otherwise apolitical followers.