SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter has removed more than 7,000 accounts linked to the “QAnon” movement over abuse and harassment concerns, saying on Tuesday it will limit the spread of conspiracy theories by its supporters.

Members of the informal, pro-Donald Trump group believe — with no credible evidence — that the United States has been ruled for decades by a criminal organisation involving people they describe as the Satan-worshipping global elite, including Hollywood stars and the “deep state”.

The right-wing group is also convinced of a secret plot against Trump, and its members have targeted his political opponents on social media with harassment.

“We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm,” Twitter said.

“In line with this approach, this week we are taking further action on so-called ‘QAnon’ activity across the service,” it added.

“We will permanently suspend accounts Tweeting about these topics that we know are engaged in violations of our multi-account policy, coordinating abuse around individual victims, or are attempting to evade a previous suspension.” A spokesperson said that the social media giant had decided to act because QAnon followers were causing increasing harm.

The FBI has identified QAnon as a potential domestic terrorism threat, according to US media.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2020