#Twitter cracking down on thousands of QAnon conspiracy theory accounts

Twitter on Tuesday said it was cracking down on accounts linked to QAnon, a group known for spreading conspiracy theories online.

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

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

NBC News first reported on the move, saying that in the last couple of weeks, Twitter had already taken down more than 7,000 accounts linked to QAnon for breaking its rules on targeted harassment as part of its new policy.

The social media giant will also stop recommending accounts and content tied to the group, impacting some 150,000 accounts, the outlet reported.

It will also ban QAnon-related terms from showing up in Twitter’s search feature and trending topics, as well as ban coordinated harassment campaigns of victims pushed by followers of the group.

“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 — something we’ve seen more of in recent weeks,” Twitter said.

The group is named “QAnon” because the supposed secret operative sends messages signed with the letter “Q.”

The baseless conspiracies pushed by QAnon center around a so-called “deep state” group made up of political, business and Hollywood A-listers worshiping Satan, abusing and murdering children and trying to take down President Trump.

They’ve also been known to spread a potentially deadly theory about the coronavirus, reportedly telling followers that they can defend themselves against the disease by guzzling a “Miracle Mineral Solution,” or MMS, that actually turns into bleach when mixed.