Social media giant Twitter has suspended 70,000 accounts tied to the conspiracy theory QAnon. This comes after pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, which left five people dead.
For those unfamiliar with QAnon, it is an unfounded, right-wing conspiracy that alleges that President Donald Trump is under assault by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles and cannibals, which includes prominent Democrats, members of the media and Hollywood stars.
“These accounts were engaged in sharing harmful QAnon-associated content at scale and were primarily dedicated to the propagation of this conspiracy theory across the service,” the company said, as reported by the Associated Press.
Trump was also banned from using Twitter for his role in inciting the violence that occurred at the U.S. Capitol. Other social media platforms that have removed Trump’s accounts and those linked to QAnon include Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit, Twitch and many others.
Apple also suspended Parler from its App Store for not taking “adequate measures to address the proliferation of these threats to people’s safety,” according to Axios. Parler is a social media alternative to Twitter where many extremists’ groups and QAnon followers were flocking to in the last few months. Google has also blocked access to Parler from its search engine.
The suspensions on social media have given right-wing news organizations and politicians something to rail against instead of focusing on the violent insurrection that took place last week. Most are screaming censorship and First Amendment violations.