Facebook Announces Deletion of QAnon Accounts, the US Far-Right Conspiracy Group

8300 QAnon-affiliated Accounts and Groups Deleted
Conspiracy Theory Groups Spreading on SNS Since 2017
Claiming "COVID-19 Fraud"... Calling Trump the Savior

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] Facebook announced that it will delete all 8,300 accounts related to 'QAnon,' a far-right conspiracy group in the United States, strengthening its crackdown following its designation of QAnon as a violent extremist group last August. QAnon is known as a conspiracy group that views the U.S. Democratic Party as an evil force and President Donald Trump as a savior, claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic was a hoax created by the Democrats to prevent Trump's re-election.

According to foreign media such as CNN, on the 6th (local time), Facebook announced through a blog post that starting from that day, it would delete all 8,300 accounts that promote or are related to QAnon, applying the same measures even if there is no violent content. The same measures will be applied to Instagram accounts, a subsidiary, and all accounts related to QAnon will be deleted. Previously, Facebook had designated QAnon as a violent extremist group but did not delete accounts without violent posts at that time.

Facebook stated, "We have confirmed that posts related to conspiracy theories about recent wildfires in the western United States, which cause real harm to society, are connected to QAnon," and added, "We will continue to strengthen vigilance to uphold our policy against violence." QAnon has been a far-right conspiracy group spreading through social networking services (SNS) such as Facebook and Twitter since 2016, known for producing fake information related to the U.S. presidential election and COVID-19.

QAnon particularly claims that an organization called the 'Deep State,' which they say is the entrenched power within the U.S. government, is connected to the Democratic Party, and that President Trump is the savior who will rescue the U.S. from the Deep State. According to the BBC, they claim that the Democratic Party and the Deep State are groups that worship the devil, and that President Trump, who is at war with them, will bring down the Democratic Party and the Deep State on Judgment Day, showing fanatic support for President Trump.