Social media giant Facebook escalated its efforts to stop the spread of conspiracy theories on its site.
The social media website released a statement on Tuesday that noted it was updating its policies to ban pages and accounts representing QAnon, a conspiracy theory that pushes an unsubstantiated idea that President Trump is fighting to break up a criminal organization of devil-worshiping pedophiles, on Facebook and Instagram.
“Starting today, we will remove any Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content,” Facebook said in a statement. “This is an update from the initial policy in August that removed Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts associated with QAnon when they discussed potential violence while imposing a series of restrictions to limit the reach of other Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts associated with the movement.”
“We are starting to enforce this updated policy today and are removing content accordingly, but this work will take time and need to continue in the coming days and weeks,” the statement continues.
Facebook announced on Aug. 19 it was cracking down on pages and accounts from “offline anarchist groups that support violent acts amidst protests, US-based militia organizations and QAnon.” As a result, 800 groups, 100 pages, and 1,500 ads connected with QAnon were removed.
