TikTok bans ALL QAnon conspiracy content in disinformation crackdown after similar move by Facebook and Twitter
TIKTOK has banned all QAnon conspiracy content in a disinformation crackdown after a similar move by Facebook and Twitter. On Saturday, the video sharing platform confirmed that they would be banning QAnon videos, according to an NPR reporter. The bizarre conspiracy theory faction support Donald Trump and believe cannibals and pedophiles secretly control the government. […]
TIKTOK has banned all QAnon conspiracy content in a disinformation crackdown after a similar move by Facebook and Twitter.
On Saturday, the video sharing platform confirmed that they would be banning QAnon videos, according to an NPR reporter.
The bizarre conspiracy theory faction support Donald Trump and believe cannibals and pedophiles secretly control the government.
QAnon content was been banned by Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, while online marketplace Etsy also removed any related merchandise.
Previously, TikTok blocked certain hashtags but this did not extend to videos – however, a new policy has been quietly in the works for weeks, according a company spokesperson.
TikTok told NPR that “content and accounts” promoting the far-right conspiracy violated their disinformation policy and would be removed.
“We’ve also taken significant steps to make this content harder to find across search and hashtags by redirecting associated terms to our Community Guidelines,” TikTok stated.
“We continually update our safeguards with misspellings and new phrases as we work to keep TikTok a safe and authentic place for our community.”
During his NBC News Town Hall with Suzannah Guthrie on Thursday, Trump declined to condemn the group.
Speaking at the event in Miami, the Republican president said he did not know what his followers believed in except that they are “very against pedophilia.”
QAnon is a dangerous right-wing conspiracy theory that the FBI considers a domestic terror threat.
It is centered on unfounded allegations Potus is waging a secret battle against a pedophile ring.
This is supposedly filled with celebrities and political elites, who have been covertly running the US government for decades.
Guthrie asked Trump to “disavow” their belief “that Democrats have a satanic pedophile ring and you [Trump] are the savior of that.”
“Just say it’s crazy and untrue,” she said, to which Trump replied: “I don’t know about QAnon.”
“What I do hear about it, they are very strongly against pedophilia, they fight it very hard,” he added. “But I know nothing about it.”
Guthrie also asked him why he tweeted a QAnon fringe theory that Biden had Navy Seals killed to cover up an Osama Bin Laden body double plot on Tuesday.
“That was a retweet,” Trump responded. “That was an opinion of somebody. And that was a retweet. I’ll put it out there. People can decide for themselves. I won’t take a position.”
But Guthrie countered that she didn’t “get that, you’re the president.”
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“You’re not like someone’s crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever,” she added – but Trump insisted: “That was a retweet.
“And I do a lot of retweets,” he went on. “Frankly, because the media is so fake, and so corrupt.
“If I didn’t have social media – I don’t call it Twitter, I call it social media – I wouldn’t be able to get the word out.”
What is QAnon?
QAnon is a dangerous right-wing conspiracy theory that the FBI believes to be a domestic terror threat.
Its supporters claim the president is communicating about “covert battles” between himself and the Deep State.
According to NBC, the theory centers around an anonymous source, Q, who is trying to tell the world a secret – or multiple secrets.
These center around unfounded allegations that President Trump and special counsel Robert Mueller are waging a secret battle against an alleged pedophile ring.
Supporters of the entirely unfounded theory believe that this ring is filled with elites, who have been secretly controlling the United States government for decades.
The FBI has warned about QAnon there have been a serious of violent crimes – including murder and attempted kidnap -– linked to the conspiracy theory.
