SAN FRANCISCO – Twitter said on Monday that it had removed more than 70,000 accounts promoting QAnon conspiracy theory in recent days as the company broadened its fight against content that could incite violence after President Trump resigned last week. is excluded.
Twitter, which carried out the suspensions over the weekend, said it had acted to combat reports that “have the potential to lead to offline damage.” It added that many of the deleted users operated multiple QAnon accounts, increasing the total number of deleted accounts.
“These accounts were engaged in the sharing of malicious QAnon-associated content on a large scale and were primarily dedicated to spreading this conspiracy theory throughout the service,” the company said in a statement. blogpos.
Social media companies rushed to distance themselves from the violent mob attack on the Capitol building last week, which killed Mr. Trump posted on social media and public comments. After the riot, Twitter and Facebook have the accounts of Mr. Trump shut down before they finally shut him down from their services and cut off the president’s megaphones.
Other social media platforms, such as Snapchat and Reddit, have also pulled out to limit Trump and toxic speech that could inspire people to violence in recent days. Facebook and Twitter have meanwhile expanded their actions. On Monday, Facebook said that any content referring to “Stop the Steal” would begin to be removed, a call for Trump supporters who believe the false claim that the election of Mr. Trump was stolen.
Twitter said it would also deepen the suppression of misleading and false information about the presidential election. Users who persistently violate civil integrity policies that prohibit users from distributing content that discourages or misleads voters about the outcome of an election will be permanently suspended, Twitter said.
Facebook and Twitter’s actions have been praised by liberals and others, but have also raised questions about the power of companies over online conversations.
The QAnon conspiracy theory has long been strong for Mr. Trump. His believers suggest mr. Trump as a hero trying to exterminate a global elite of satan-worshiping pedophiles. One woman who violated the Capitol last week and was shot dead, Ashli Babbitt, was a QAnon believer.
While the conspiracy theory has been circulating online for years, social media businesses have only moved in recent months to take down the content associated with it. Last August, Facebook began drafting policies banning QAnon groups seeking violence before extending the step in October, saying it was any group, page or Instagram account openly identified with QAnon , remove.
In July, Twitter banned 7,000 QAnon accounts and blocked conspiracy theory-related topics in its popular topics. But the theories have repeatedly re-emerged on Twitter and other social media platforms, leading to online harassment and physical violence.
The elimination of tens of thousands of QAnon accounts, coupled with the routine removal of bots and spammers, has caused noticeable fluctuations in the number of followers of Twitter users.
This has led to some users – such as the former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and a Florida congressman, Matt Gaetz – to speculate that Twitter secretly cut them off from their followers because of their political beliefs.
Nadat Twitter mr. Trump banned the platform, some of his supporters asked Monday outside the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. City workers imposed barricades and police were vigilant to prevent any disturbance. But their preparations were ultimately unnecessary: the protest attracted only one contestant.