A person holds a banner referring to the Qanon conspiracy theory during a alt-right rally in August 2019 in Portland, Oregon. Photo: AFP/Stephanie Keite
TikTok joins social media giants in removing QAnon-related content
TikTok joined Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit and others in taking a stand against the QAnon conspiracy theory.
A person holds a banner referring to the Qanon conspiracy theory during a alt-right rally in August 2019 in Portland, Oregon. Photo: AFP/Stephanie Keite
TikTok has been clamping down on QAnon believers since August and released a policy that saw the video-sharing platform reducing the discoverability of QAnon-related content.
TikTok takes a stand
The campaign started with TikTok banning related hashtags and removing conspiracy content just two months ago. It now also includes banning accounts and redirecting searches to the site’s community guidelines.
A TikTok spokesperson told The Verge that the video-sharing platform “has taken steps to make QAnon-related content harder to find in search”. The source explained it doesn’t promote disinformation:
“Content and accounts that promote QAnon violate our disinformation policy and we remove them from our platform. We continually update our safeguards with misspellings and new phrases as we work to keep TikTok a safe and authentic place for our community.”
This follows after TikTok banned the hashtags QAnon, QAnonTruth and Out of Shadows back in July 2020. However, at the time, the videos containing QAnon content was still visible on the app.
As reported by BBC, those videos would regularly pop up in users’ For You feed. Well, not anymore. TikTok has fully embraced the new policy and joins the ranks of Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.
The fight against QAnon
Facebook and Instagram
Earlier this month, Facebook confirmed that it would be removing QAnon content from both platforms, referring to it as a “militarised social movement” which goes against the platform’s community standards.
Facebook also shut down QAnon-related groups for “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”. That said, members were still free to post on their individual accounts and timelines.
Twitter also banned more than 7 000 QAnon-related accounts back in July 2020. It’s also no surprise that even President Donald Trump has retweeted numerous QAnon accounts.
During the span of but one afternoon, Trump “amplified at least 14 times accounts that have pushed QAnon. A complete thread of his tweets can be viewed here. One of the retweets as shared by one Reed Cooper:
“Education4Libss was also removed from Twitter yesterday at over 500k followers with no explanation! Twitter, bring his amazing account back. God bless Dylan! #QAnon”.
In addition, Reddit entirely removed the QAnon subreddit r/GreatAwakening for “inciting violence, harassment, and the dissemination of personal information”.
Reddit is where the QAnon movement first attracted a mass audience after it moved off 4chan (that already should tell you all you need to know about the movement). By August 2018, r/GreatAwakening had more than 70 000 members.
YouTube
The Google-owned YouTube has yet to take an official stand against QAnon; however, the term broadly referenced the removal of “conspiracy theory content used to justify real-world violence”.
As reported by AP News, “one example would be videos that threaten or harass someone by suggesting they are complicit in a conspiracy such as QAnon, which paints President Donald Trump as a secret warrior” against the deep state.
What is QAnon?
QAnon believes that Trump is undercover to stop a child-trafficking ring managed by celebrities and deep state government officials. Notable targets include Chrissy Teigen, Tom Hanks, Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey.
Furthermore, the false conspiracy claims that President Trump is secretly planning to arrest Democratic politicians and celebrities for paedophilia and cannibalism. Shayan Sardarizadeh, a journalist covering online disinformation and conspiracy theories for BBC, wrote:
“I’ve spent the last three months investigating the rise of QAnon in the UK and Save Our Children rallies up and down the country. I’ve spent hours in their Facebook groups, attended their rallies and talked to the protesters.”
Read Sardarizadeh’s full account here. Lastly, it should be noted that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has labelled QAnon as a “potential domestic terrorist threat“.
Also read – Here’s how conspiracy theory memes are spreading on Facebook
