Twitter Cracks Down On Qanon, Bans Over 7000 Accounts

By Red Painter — July 22, 2020

QAnon, the conspiracy theory whackjob group that follows someone called "Q" who leaves them crumbs about an alleged "deep state" plot to overthrow Donald Trump is finally being purged from Twitter. NBC News is reporting that Twitter cracked down on the group, banning over 7,000 accounts and limiting 150,000 users.

Twitter announced this move in a set of tweets:

We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm. In line with this approach, this week we are taking further action on so-called ‘QAnon’ activity across the service.

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) July 22, 2020

We will permanently suspend accounts Tweeting about these topics that we know are engaged in violations of our multi-account policy, coordinating abuse around individual victims, or are attempting to evade a previous suspension — something we’ve seen more of in recent weeks.

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) July 22, 2020

In addition, we will:

1⃣ No longer serve content and accounts associated with QAnon in Trends and recommendations
2⃣ Work to ensure we’re not highlighting this activity in search and conversations
3⃣ Block URLs associated with QAnon from being shared on Twitter

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) July 22, 2020

They are rolling out these changes this week, an excellent start, especially leading up to the election when disinformation campaigns will be growing exponentially by the day. So why is Twitter taking these steps? They say it is because of "ongoing problems with harassment and the dissemination of misinformation."

In addition to banning accounts, they will also stop recommending accounts "related to QAnon" and will also limit trends and search terms related to the conspiracy theory and common phrases relating to it. Twitter will also work to identify users that "violate existing policies around platform manipulation, ban evasion and operate multiple accounts, behaviors commonly seen used by QAnon accounts." Banned users coming back with new accounts is a common problem, not isolated to QAnon people.

Twitter isn't the only place to recognize the damage QAnon has caused. In fact, the FBI actually designated them as a "potential domestic terror threat" just last year. Donald Trump and a slew of Republicans in Congress have retweeted QAnon accounts, helping lift their profile on social media. And numerous QAnon candidates are actually running for office in 2020, with a few that may win their seats simply because they're the only Republican on the ticket in blood-red districts.

And you guys thought the Tea Party was bad! Wait until you get a load of QAnon.

So what has QAnon been up to recently? In addition to working against the deep state, supporting Michael Flynn and Roger Stone and throwing support behind Donald Trump, they have also been pushing insane hashtags, like #Obamagate and the anti-vaccination movement. QAnon supporters have also set up coordinated attacks on celebrities, which is called "swarming."

How long until Donald Trump, Matt Gaetz and Gym Jordan start freaking out about "silencing of conservatives" or something? Maybe they can all go to Parler...wait. No one wants to be there anymore. How about Gab? Does anyone go to Gab anymore?

Oh well.