Posted on 07/21/2020 5:39:15 PM PDT by RandFan
Twitter has banned thousands of accounts affiliated with QAnon as part of a crackdown on the conspiracy theory, a spokesperson for the platform confirmed to The Hill on Tuesday.
Accounts and content tied to QAnon will no longer be included in email, push or follow recommendations. Twitter will also take steps to limit the spread of that content in trends and search.
Roughly 150,000 accounts worldwide will be affected by that change, according to Twitter.
More than 7,000 affiliated accounts have already been removed in recent weeks for violating the platform's rules against spam, manipulation and evading bans.
NBC News first reported the takedowns.
The crackdown on the QAnon theory – which posits that President Trump and the military are working together to expose a shadowy cabal of figures in media, entertainment and politics – comes amid problems with harassment against certain figures, according to Twitter.
Some celebrities, including Chrissy Teigen, have been targeted online by social media users recently.
The once-fringe online theory has gained mainstream recognition in recent months, with multiple Republican candidates for Congress expressing support for its tenets.
The FBI labeled the loose community a potential domestic terror threat last year.
But ANTIFA accounts are safe and sound
Unreal.
Wow. Bad
Twitter QAnons over the target.
Can’t have that, right @jack?
Make sure you make Twitter a co-defendant for all lawsuits that result from the riots.
Achtung, get into zee boxcar.
Twitter. The official arbiters of TRUTH.
“The FBI labeled the loose community a potential domestic terror threat last year.”
What criteria did they use for that label? They seem pretty law-abiding to me.
The definitions can be stretched to make anyone a ‘terrorist’
Rand Paul warned against this years ago.
Q may have been a conspiracy theory years ago. But anymore it’s just a bunch of old gals sitting around chitchatting.
So, it's hardly a new thing.
QAnon is nonsense, but so are communism, transgenderism, and a ton of other things, so this is yet another anti-right BS move by Twitter.
Ho. Lee Chit.
Twitter will permanently suspend accounts tweeting about Q. https://t.co/mctlw59KfV— Praying Medic (@prayingmedic) July 22, 2020
JUST IN: Twitter says it has begun taking sweeping actions to limit the reach of QAnon content and banned many of the conspiracy theory's followers due to ongoing problems with harassment and the dissemination of misinformation.
Yikes...Here we go...Nice knowing you all— 🌟🌟Rooster🌟🌟 (@no_silenced) July 22, 2020
Some QAnon accounts are already trying to come up with ways to evade targeted harassment bans, like saying "17" instead of "Q sent me."
Twitter told us their enforcement team—and machine learning—would be on the lookout for this sort of evolution.https://t.co/Hznllz8FQU pic.twitter.com/DUdl1Ucoct— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) July 22, 2020
I’m not a big fan of QAnon, but I will certainly defend their right to free speech. This is all part of a very carefully crafted plan to shut down the voices of the Right before the Election. It’s coming to late to challenge this in the courts and early enough to effect the influence the voice of the Right prior to the election.
Twitter, of course, is a private company, and the 1st Amendment is a constraint on government. Private companies largely get a pass.
I need to do some further research into this:
In 1946, Marsh v Alabama, #SCOTUS ruled for #FreeSpeech in public square
EVEN THO PUBLIC SQUARE WAS PRIVATELY OWNED
It was a company town & person was handing out religious tracks
Today ALL OF AMERICA is now a COMPANY TOWN
www.parler.com
IMHO Parler suffers from the same dynamic as does Twatter: unless you’re a Celebrity or spend you entire days on the site, Parlering away, it’s damn near impossible to get your voice heard.
Give me the FB alternative — www.mewe.com — any day.
Twitter is a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ as Common Stock (TWTR).
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