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Jewish groups welcome Facebook’s ban on QAnon
Organisations warn the social media giant must follow through with robust enforcement
October 7, 2020 14:50
Organisations warn the social media giant must follow through with robust enforcement
October 7, 2020 14:50Facebook’s broader crackdown on the QAnon conspiracy movement, which deploys a number of antisemitic tropes, has been welcomed by Jewish groups.
But the social media giant must follow through with robust enforcement, they warned.
In a statement on Tuesday, Facebook said it would remove any pages, groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon even if they contained no violent content.
The baseless conspiracy theory originated in 2017 in cryptic posts from an anonymous user named Q on internet message boards.
It claims that President Donald Trump is waging a secret war against a cabal-run child sex-trafficking ring and has since grown in popularity and spread across online platforms, with NBC News reporting in August that Facebook groups linked to the movement had millions of users.
Dave Rich, director of policy at the Community Security Trust, said Wednesday the movement has been “regularly associated with antisemitic conspiracy theories and has shown itself in the US to be capable of motivating people to violence.”
However, Mr Rich added, “as with all Facebook’s rules, the effectiveness of the ban will come down to their ability to enforce it across their platforms.”
The platform had recently removed more than 1,500 QAnon pages and groups containing “discussions of potential violence” - but this latest move appears to go much further.
The social media has faced pressure to tackle hate speech and updated its policy in August to include a new crackdown on antisemitic tropes.
Matthew McGregor, campaigns director at the anti-extremism charity HOPE not Hate, said the move was "long overdue".
"QAnon is patchwork movement, followed by people with varying motivations, but strong sinews of antisemitism have run through it from its earliest days. The QAnon worldview relies on concepts that are embedded in the ancient prejudices of Jewish world control and blood libel," he said.
"This ban will only work if Facebook's resolve matches their words; we've already seen how QAnon is using coded language and adopting new names to evade bans and reach a wider audience. Removing it from the platform entirely will require in-depth knowledge and constant vigilance for months or years to come.”
Jonathan A Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, welcomed the “much needed, if belated” step.
“QAnon is an extremist movement that fuels antisemitism and promotes misinformation and hate in an effort to undermine our democratic process,” he said
“Now that they have announced that they will treat the QAnon ideology like the very real threat that it is, we hope that they will follow up with some modicum of evidence showing how the ban is being enforced and whether it is fully effective,” he added.
