QAnon: Twitter bans accounts linked to conspiracy theory

Twitter has announced extensive measures to crack down on QAnon’s conspiracy theory, including banning thousands of accounts.

The social media giant said it would also stop recommending the content linked to QAnon and prevent the URLs associated with it from being shared on the platform.

QAnon is a sprawling conspiracy theory whose followers support U.S. President Donald Trump.

Twitter said it hoped the action would help prevent “offline damage”.

In a shared statement on the platform, Twitter said it would permanently suspend accounts that violate its policies while tweeting about QAnon.

The suspensions will apply to accounts “involved in violations of our multi-account policy, coordinating abuse around individual victims or attempting to circumvent a previous suspension – something we have seen more of in the past few weeks,” he said.

The suspensions are expected to impact about 150,000 accounts worldwide. More than 7,000 accounts have been removed in the past few weeks for violations, Twitter said.

QAnon’s followers believe that “deep state” traitors are plotting against Donald Trump. Conspiracy theory has moved from marginal social media sites to the main focus.

QAnon supporters have been linked to numerous other false claims that have spread online, including a bizarre conspiracy theory involving an American furniture company and child trafficking allegations.

The FBI last year issued a warning on “conspiracy theory-led domestic extremists” and designated QAnon as a potential internal extremist threat.

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