Twitter suspends 70K QAnon accounts in wake of Capitol riots

Twitter on Monday announced that more than 70,000 accounts have been suspended following the riots in Washington DC stating that these accounts were engaged in sharing harmful QAnon-associated content.

QAnon is often portrayed as a shadowy collection of individuals who claim President Donald Trump is secretly battling a network of paedophiles in the Democratic Party and the establishment, Sputnik reported.

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The social media giant confirmed in a blog post that it has removed the accounts as part of an effort following the riot last week "to protect the conversation on our service from attempts to incite violence, organise attacks, and share deliberately misleading information about the election outcome."

"We`ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behaviour that has the potential to lead to offline harm. Given the violent events in Washington, DC, and increased risk of harm, we began permanently suspending thousands of accounts that were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content on Friday afternoon," it read.

"More than 70,000 accounts have been suspended as a result of our efforts, with many instances of a single individual operating numerous accounts. These accounts were engaged in sharing harmful QAnon-associated content at scale and were primarily dedicated to the propagation of this conspiracy theory across the service," it added.The now-banned accounts "were engaged in sharing harmful QAnon-associated content at scale and were primarily dedicated to the propagation of this conspiracy theory."

The Hill further reported that the social media giant last week permanently suspended accounts for 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. The micro-blogging site also permanently suspended Trump`s account on Friday, claiming that his tweets pose "the risk of further incitement of violence.

"However, Twitter is not alone in Silicon Valley in boosting efforts to tamp down" in misinformation following the riot among pro-Trump demonstrators last week in the Capitol. Facebook on Monday announced that it is taking down content that contains the phrase "stop the steal."

"With continued attempts to organize events against the outcome of the US presidential election that can lead to violence, and use of the term by those involved in Wednesday`s violence in DC, we`re taking this additional step in the lead up to the inauguration," the company said in a blog post as quoted by The Hill.

On January 6, a group of Trump`s loyalists stormed the US Capitol building, clashing with police, damaging property, seizing the inauguration stage and occupying the rotunda. The unrest took place after Trump urged his supporters to protest what he claims is a stolen presidential election.

The outgoing President has since been blocked on all major social networks at least until after he is out of office.

The story has been taken from a news agency