Facebook is finally cracking down on QAnon, after the conspiracy theory ran rampant on the platform for years and reached millions of people
Facebook announced Wednesday it was taking down pages and accounts that promote QAnon, a conspiracy theory with a growing number of followers.
After sporadic moves to limit QAnon's spread, Wednesday's move is the company's most significant to date.Facebook is finally cracking down on QAnon, a baseless conspiracy theory that accuses prominent politicians of links to pedophilia and has been linked to violence.Over the past few months, QAnon content has run rampant on Facebook, reaching millions of people and growing rapidly as the pandemic fueled paranoia and enflamed distrust of the government.
that 170 prominent QAnon pages had a combined 4.5 million followers across Facebook and Instagram and were growing fast, with "dedicated communities for QAnon followers in at least 15 countries on Facebook.". The company's own internal research reportedly found that "the top 10 groups ... collectively contain more than 1 million members, with totals from more top groups and pages pushing the number of members and followers past 3 million.
This crackdown may help to slow QAnon's spread — but it comes only after it has already found a vast audience through the social network.
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