Social media giant Twitter had removed more than 7,000 accounts from its platform over the past weeks as part of its continued efforts to halt the spread of conspiracy theories and fake news. The company revealed that the majority of the accounts that were purged were those that had links to the conspiracy theory group QAnon.
In a post on Tuesday, Twitter's safety team warned that they had made themselves very clear that strong and immediate action would be taken against accounts that spread information that could lead to offline harm. The team added that the recent week's purge was made against accounts that had supported QAnon activities online.
Apart from the already removed accounts, Twitter expects to take additional actions in the coming weeks to further limit the reach of the group on its platform. The move is estimated to likely affect more than 150,000 accounts worldwide.
The QAnon group originally started as a single far-right conspiracy theory that involved an alleged plot against U.S. President Donald Trump and his supporters. The single theory then ballooned into an entire online cult movement that included more conspiracy theories and thousands of followers that support and "worship" the disinformation.
One of the group's more prevalent conspiracy theories alleges that dozens of celebrities and politicians are working with the government to run a global child trafficking ring. Analysts had noted that the group grew to its current size in multiple social media platforms through its creators' efforts to generate profits from monetizing false information.
Twitter explained in a post that accounts that are found tweeting topics promoted by QAnon will be permanently suspended. It added it will specifically target accounts that violate its multi-account policy, those that coordinate abuse on a specific individual or entity, and those that try to evade previous suspensions. The company claims that it has seen a surge in these types of violations in recent weeks.
Promoters of QAnon's agenda often use multiple accounts to amplify certain conversations and topics with the goal of stirring up controversies. Almost all of the group's claims have been found to be unsubstantiated and no evidence has yet been brought forward to prove their authenticity. Some followers often doctor or manipulate factual information to generate out-of-context evidence, which is then posted on social media to attract more followers.
Apart from blocking and suspending accounts that are spreading QAnon's conspiracies, Twitter is also actively removing the topic s from its trending and recommended sections. It also prevents any associated URLs and websites from being shares on its platform.
