Twitter suspends more than 70,000 accounts sharing QAnon content
Washington, Jan 12 (efe-epa).- Twitter announced that it has suspended more than 70,000 accounts dedicated to sharing QAnon content following the attack on Capitol Hill in Washington and ahead of the US presidential inauguration on Jan. 20.
“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,” Twitter said in a blog on Tuesday.
According to the site, many of the users affected by the move “held multiple accounts, driving up the total number of accounts impacted.”
“Since Friday, 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,” Twitter added.
The far-right conspiracy theory promoted QAnon claims that Trump is waging a global secret war against Satan-worshipping pedophiles.
Twitter stressed that it “will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm.”
Hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol last week, forcing Vice-President Mike Pence and lawmakers to shelter in the House and Senate chambers until they could be evacuated.
The assault on the Capitol came as lawmakers were proceeding with certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the Nov. 3 presidential election. But in a speech before his supporters gathered in front of the White House, Trump urged them to march to Congress and once again repeated his baseless, and oft disproven, allegations that massive election fraud was the only reason that Biden had defeated his reelection bid.
Four people died during the chaotic and violent attack, while one of the police officials on duty at the Capitol during the attack died the next day.
On Jan. 8, Twitter permanently suspended Trump’s account “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
Facebook and Instagram have also blocked the president from using his accounts until the transfer of power on Jan. 20, while Twitch and Snapchat have deactivated his profile indefinitely.
Twitter also suspended the accounts of several Trump allies who had promoted QAnon conspiracy theories, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, and the administrator of website 8kun (formerly 8chan), Ron Watkins. EFE-EPA
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