Twitter and Amazon are taking action against QAnon

A total of 70,000 Twitter accounts have been deleted in the past few days because they were linked to the QAnon conspiracy group. The short message service announced this via Blogpost. In this Twitter writes:

Following the horrific events in Washington, DC, last week, here are some of the steps we’ve taken to protect the conversation on our service […] . 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.

Am January 6th, Trump supporters forcibly entered the Capitol in Washington, DC. Among them were many exponents of the QAnon conspiracy myth. During his tenure, the incumbent US president repeatedly picked up on allegations made by the conspiracy group and not least spread them on Twitter.

The publisher Mashable described the current efforts of the social media platform as “laughably too late” and alludes to the fact that the spread of conspiracy myths should have been curbed much earlier. So would have Storm on the Capitol may not even have taken place.

70,000 fewer accounts spreading the QAnon conspiracy myths on Twitter

The fact that Twitter has already deleted 70,000 accounts linked to the QAnon conspiracy group does not mean that there are now 70,000 fewer followers of the myth on the platform. These accounts can no longer distribute the disinformation of the QAnon group, which originated on the 4Chan platform, in the social network. Lots Key figures in the movement were removed from the platform. Other accounts also recorded a significant loss of followers after Twitter’s clean-up. For account operators affected by this, this is a good time to reflect on why they have had so many QAnon-related subscribers until now.

“I can’t believe the day Twitter purged Neo-Nazis from their platform I lost thousands of followers. Welp, back to never connecting the dots.”

— Andrew Rosas (@MrAndrewRosas) January 10, 2021

Twitter took action against supporters of the QAnon conspiracy myth last year. In June 2020, the social media platform began blocking group activities.

Amazon wants to ban QAnon from the marketplace

The e-commerce giant is also reacting to the events in Washington, DC After Amazon blocked the Twitter alternative Parler, the platform is now starting to remove products and sellers: inside with a clear QAnon reference. The New York Times reports that books, flags, clothing and other merchandise from the conspiracy group, for example, will be banned in the coming days. Critical voices say that this measure was also initiated too late. Because that Conspiracy group in connection with acts of violence is known since its existence.

Background: Trump supporters: inside penetrated the Capitol

At the beginning of 2021, numerous Trump supporters stormed the Senate seat in Washington, DC by force after they were repeatedly incited to do so by Donald Trump via social media. The US president has claimed several times over the past few months that the Democrats have rigged the US presidential election – without any evidence. Driven by Trump, his supporters protested inside in front of the Capitol against the certification of the election victory of the Democrat Joe Biden. Here the situation escalated. Several people were injured, four came according to the daily News about life. Donald Trump has now been banned from almost all social media platforms due to his clear connection to the group.