Twitter announced on Monday that it has banned more than 70,000 accounts sharing content about the QAnon conspiracy theory in the wake of the riot that broke out at the Capitol last week.
The social media giant confirmed in a blog post that it removed the accounts as part of an attempt after last week’s riot “to protect the conversation on our service from attempts to incite violence, organize attacks and deliberately share misleading information about election results.”
“It is clear that we will take vigorous action against behavior that can cause damage offline. Given the violent events in Washington, DC, and the heightened risk of harm, we have begun to permanently suspend thousands of accounts primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content on Friday afternoon, ”the blog post said.
Twitter said that “many” of those affected by the ban “had multiple accounts” sharing content surrounding QAnon’s conspiracy theory, claiming unfounded that President Trump
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The now banned accounts “were engaged in the widespread sharing of harmful QAnon-related content and were primarily devoted to the dissemination of this conspiracy theory.”
Twitter last week permanently suspended accounts to former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell and former 8kun administrator Ron Watkins as part of efforts to crack down on content related to the QAnon theory.
Flynn, who served as Trump’s first national security adviser, was one of the most visible supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Twitter also permanently suspended Trump’s account on Friday, claiming his tweets “pose the risk of further incitement to violence.”
“After a thorough review of recent Tweets from the @ realDonaldTrump account and the context surrounding them – specifically how they are received and interpreted on and off Twitter – we have permanently suspended the account,” the company wrote in a blog post last week.
Twitter isn’t alone in Silicon Valley to boost efforts to tackle misinformation following the riot among pro-Trump protesters in the Capitol last week. Facebook announced on Monday that it is removing content containing the phrase ‘stop stealing’.
“With continued efforts to organize events against the outcome of the US presidential election that could lead to violence, and the use of the term by those involved in Wednesday’s violence in DC, we are taking this extra step in the lead-up to the inauguration, ”” the company said in a blog post.
The riot at the Capitol, which took place during Congressional certification of the Electoral College in the 2020 election, resulted in at least five deaths, including a Capitol Police officer.