Patreon has become the latest social media company to ban QAnon theories from its platform. Per Bloomberg, the company announced that it would be taking action against any account that actively uses its platform to spread QAnon theories.
“QAnon-dedicated creators that are identified by our Policy and Trust & Safety teams will have their accounts removed from Patreon,” the company said in a blog post per Bloomberg.
Patreon however, adds that accounts that analyzed the QAnon conspiracy would not be affected by the ban. Creators that have spread some QAnon ideas but “are not dedicated to spreading QAnon content” would also be given the time to bring their accounts in compliance with the company’s new policy.
QAnon, which sometimes is referred to as “the Storm,” is popularly known for its connection to Pizzagate, which is a baseless conspiracy that accused Hillary Clinton of running a sex trafficking ring out of a Washington D.C pizza place. The conspiracy, according to TechCrunch, “inspired an armed believer to show up to the pizza shop, where he fired a rifle inside the restaurant, though no one was injured.”
Social media companies have been updating their policies to include banning or suspending QAnon theories on their platforms. In July, Twitter vowed that its platform would no longer welcome right-wing conspiracy theories also known as QAnon.
The microblogging company said it would begin treating QAnon content on its platform differently. Twitter said it would remove related topics from its trending pages and algorithm recommendations. It went further to add that it would rid its platform of all associated URLs, and permanently suspend any accounts tweeting about QAnon that had previously been suspended.
The company said it would permanently suspend such accounts as part of measures to keep its platform safe for all “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.”
Lately, Facebook announced the extension it placed on QAnon-related content to all its social platforms. Recall that the social media giant had last August placed a ban on content related to QAnon–a group sympathetic to US President Donald Trump.
“Starting today, we will remove any Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content. This is an update from the initial policy in August that removed Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts associated with QAnon when they discussed potential violence while imposing a series of restrictions to limit the reach of other Pages, Groups, and Instagram accounts associated with the movement.”
