Twitter permanently suspended the accounts of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and former 8kun administrator Ron Watkins on Friday as part of a crackdown on content linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory.
A spokesman for the platform told The Hill that each individual was banned according to Twitter’s policy against harmful coordinated activities.
“We make it clear that we will take severe crackdowns on behavior that has the potential to cause harm offline and, given the renewed potential for violence around this type of behavior in the coming days, we will permanently suspend accounts that are exclusively dedicated to sharing QAnon content. ”Added the spokesman.
Flynn, President Trump
Donald Trump Capitol Police Officer Dies After Riot Donor who gave Hawley millions asks Senate to censor him for ‘irresponsible’ behavior Kellyanne Conway condemns the violence and supports Trump in a statement about Capitol disturbances MOREthe first national security adviser to, was one of the most visible supporters of QAnon with close ties to the government, posting a video of him reciting one of his “oaths” last summer.
Powell, who led Trump’s unsuccessful attempts to overturn the results of the November election, was sued at $ 1.3 billion on Friday for spreading misinformation about Dominion’s voting systems.
Watkins was also a key figure spreading falsehoods about the voting company. Its previous platform hosts posts from “Q”, the anonymous figure who posts the cryptic messages that serve as the basis for the theory.
8kun changed its name from 8chan after it was used to post manifestos for mass killings, including that of El Paso, Texas, which left 17 dead in 2019.
Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory strongly believe that Trump is working to expose a dark cabal of elites in Democratic politics in the media who run clandestine child trafficking circles.
Proponents of the theory were heavily involved in Wednesday’s death on Capitol Hill.
Critics say that Twitter had plenty of time to act on these high-profile accounts before Wednesday’s violence.
“So much unnecessary suffering would have been avoided if Twitter did this two years ago instead of today,” Travis View, co-host of the podcast “QAnonymous”, posted shortly after the removals.
Several other important QAnon accounts were suspended on Friday as part of the crackdown, including @prayingmedic and @majorpatriot.
Twitter has already taken steps to remove the conspiracy theory from its website before, including removing thousands of accounts in July.
However, many important accounts have not been affected or have simply managed to escape the prohibitions.