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Twitter removed 70k-plus QAnon accounts this past weekend

Yesterday Twitter was bracing itself for a pro-Trump rally at its San Francisco headquarters, which ended up being a sole woman with a placard about CEO Jack Dorsey. While the platform may have dodged a potentially violent event, it is likely still earning the ire of many in the far right, as the company recently detailed that it removed more than 70 000 accounts related to QAnon over a three day period.

Said removal began last week Friday, and was the latest action taken by Twitter in its clamp down on QAnon and the conspiracy theories it likes to peddle, many of which often lead to dire consequences.

The reason for the permanent suspensions is as a result of the violent rally and storming of the US Capitol earlier this month.

“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,” explained Twitter in a blog post regarding its recent steps.

“Many of the individuals impacted by this updated enforcement action 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,” it adds.

Interestingly, the result of this action has seen a number of Republican lawmakers losing followers, which serves to show what kind of followers the political party leaders have.

“Our updated enforcement on QAnon content on Twitter, along with routine spam challenges, has resulted in changes in follower count for some people’s Twitter accounts. In some cases, these actions may have resulted in follower count changes in the thousands,” noted Twitter.

With services like Parler currently inactive, it will prove interesting to see where QAnon members and followers chose to spread their conspiracy theories in future, as mainstream social media platforms are starting to purge them.

[Image – Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash]

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