Twitter cracks down on QAnon accounts, banning 7,000

(Image credit: Rick Loomis/Getty Images)

published 22 July 2020

Twitter said Tuesday it is cracking down on accounts that spread the QAnon right-wing conspiracy theory, and has removed more than 7,000 such accounts over the last few weeks after they engaged in targeted harassment.

A Twitter spokesperson told NBC News the company will stop recommending accounts and content related to QAnon and will keep QAnon information from appearing in trending topics or search results. It is also taking steps to keep QAnon followers from coordinating harassment campaigns against other people. Twitter said these actions will affect roughly 150,000 accounts.

QAnon began with an anonymous person making the claim, without any evidence, that President Trump is fighting the "deep state," a group of Satan-worshiping elites who are part of an international child sex trafficking ring. People wearing "Q" hats and shirts or carrying signs are often spotted at Trump rallies and events, and several adherents have won Republican Congressional primaries this year.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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