Facebook Cracks Down On QAnon And Other 'Militarized' Social Groups

Facebook is the latest social media company to crack down on groups spreading QAnon conspiracy theories and other groups like them. The company announced its latest change in an update to an announcement it made back in August, which was itself an update on how Facebook will handle various organizations and other movements that it says are tied to violence. This time around, the change involves advertisements.READ: TikTok is the latest social network to target QAnon conspiracies

QAnon refers to a viral far-right conspiracy theory that originated on an anonymous photo board and that has since sprawled to become a massive, ridiculous social movement that largely revolves around dedication to the Trump presidency.

Though the conspiracy has grown and become more bizarre since its early days, the general idea is that Trump is somehow secretly fighting against Satanic pedophiles and that any day now, tons of politicians and journalists will be arrested.

Unfortunately, the movement and others like it have linked themselves with violence, either by threatening violence against others or expressing support for violence. In its latest update on September 30, Facebook said that it is no longer allowing anyone to run advertisements on its platform that 'praise, support or represent' QAnon or what it calls other 'militarized social movements.'

In addition, Facebook said that it will start giving posts from restricted Pages and Groups related to these movements lower priority in followers' news feeds, making them less likely to see the content. The company also noted the sudden rise of the #savethechildren hashtag on its platform, stating that it is 'taking steps' to address things like this that QAnon may use to increase its number of followers.