The social media giant Facebook announced that it will remove anything on Facebook or Instagram that represents QAnon, the group variously described as an interest group, an information network, a set of conspiracy theories, and a movement.
Said Facebook in a posting in its corporate newsroom, today’s initiative is an extension of the policy undertaken in August that removed content that discussed violence. The new initiative is more sweeping:
Starting today, we will remove any Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content. This is an update from the initial policy in August that removed Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts associated with QAnon when they discussed potential violence while imposing a series of restrictions to limit the reach of other Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts associated with the movement. Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts that represent an identified Militarized Social Movement are already prohibited. And we will continue to disable the profiles of admins who manage Pages and Groups removed for violating this policy, as we began doing in August.
Facebook said the removal of content does not depend on user reports to Facebook, but rather is lead by the company’s Dangerous Organizations Operations Team based on that group’s study of content on the properties.
