Facebook Bans QAnon From Facebook Groups, Pages and Instagram

QAnon no longer has a place on Facebook following an escalation from the social media giant’s moderation team. The company says that it will remove QAnon groups and those affiliated with the wildly popular conspiracy theory from their platforms starting today. This includes Facebook Groups, Pages and Instagram.

The announcement is the latest escalation of Facebook’s attempts to crack down on misinformation on their networks. In August, the company removed some 1,500 groups, pages and profiles from the platform.

In a press release, the company writes:

Starting today, we will remove Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts for representing QAnon. We’re starting to enforce this updated policy today and are removing content accordingly, but this work will take time and will continue in the coming days and weeks. Our Dangerous Organizations Operations team will continue to enforce this policy and proactively detect content for removal instead of relying on user reports.

QAnon’s spread throughout the platform has already seen real-world effects, such as numerous in-person demonstrations and an armed man blocking the Hoover Dam bridge in 2018. According to NBC, a spokesperson for the company said that it needed to stop the “ability of QAnon and Militarized Social Movements to operate and organize on our platform.”

Since rising to prominence in 2018, QAnon slowly weaseled its way into the mainstream political conversation, despite being an unfounded conspiracy theory that posits that President Donald Trump is fighting an international cabal of child traffickers. Recently, the group began hijacking human trafficking awareness campaigns, such as #SaveTheChildren, and inspired a woman to kidnap her child from foster care, believing the child to be a victim of trafficking. She pleaded not guilty of the charges. Several Republican candidates are currently running campaigns on QAnon-focused platforms, including right-wing firebrand Laura Loomer.

Last month, 8chan founder Frederick Brennan accused his former business partner and current 8kun owner Jim Watkins of either being Q, the leader of the conspiracy theory, or being in league with him.