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Facebook says it will ban QAnon across its platforms

Facebook expanded a ban on QAnon-related content on its various social platforms Tuesday, deepening a previous prohibition on QAnon-related groups that had discussed potential violence, according to the company.

Todays move by Facebook to not only ban violent QAnon content but any Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon is an escalation by the social giant to clean its platform ahead of an increasingly contentious election.

QAnon is a sprawling set of interwoven pro-Trump conspiracy theories that has taken root inside swaths of the American electorate. Its more extreme adherents have been charged with terrorism after acting out in violent and dangerous ways, spurred on by their adherence to the unusual and often incoherent belief system.Buzzfeed News recently decided to call QAnon a collective delusion, another apt title for the theorys inane, fatuous, and dangerous beliefs.

Over the course of the last year, QAnon swelled from a fringe conspiracy theory into a shockingly mainstream political belief system one that even has its own Congressional candidates. That growth was powered by social networks inherently designed to connect like-minded people to one another, a feature that has been found time and time again to spread misinformation and usher users toward increasingly radical beliefs.

Twitters policy change, like Facebooks previous one, stopped short of banning the content outright but did move to contain its spread.

How effective Facebook will be at clearing QAnon related content from its various platforms is not clear today, but will be something that will track.

Original article
Author: Taylor Hatmaker

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Taylor Hatmaker has recently written 11 articles on similar topics including :
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