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Twitter has begun debugging content similar to QAnon, a set of pro-Trump conspiracy theories that argue, among other things, that a mysterious entity called “Deep State” actively opposes the president. A spokesperson for the social media site said the accounts that propagate QAnon’s theories had a habit similar to well-documented offline damage. In an article published Tuesday night on his security account, Twitter said he would permanently suspend accounts in violation of his “multiple accounts policy, coordinating abuses around individual victims or seeking to evade a past suspension.” In addition, Twitter stated that it would no longer come with content similar to QAnon or related accounts on Trends, would attempt to restrict search effects, and “block relevant URLs with QAnon”. The blocked links policy, which applies to “spam” or “malicious” content, is not new, but has recently been implemented in QAnon content, a Twitter spokesperson said. As a result, Twitter has banned 7,000 accounts in recent weeks and will restrict the movement of others, the spokesman said. NBC, which first announced the news, said the restrictions are expected to have effects on 150,000 accounts.

We have made it clear that we will take serious enforcement action for behaviors that could cause offline harm. According to this approach, this week we are taking additional steps on the so-called “QAnon” activity of the service.

QAnon has been described as a “deranged conspiracy cult,” a “new religion” and absolutely “unfounded.” The FBI has described QAnon as an internal terrorist threat. However, that has not prevented many Republican candidates from taking QAnon. President Donald Trump has also continually retwed QAnon’s accounts, which may be directly affected by the Twitter resolution. In May, Facebook got rid of 8 non-QA-related disdata networks for violating its “coordinated inautentic habit before the 2020 U.S. election.” And in 2018, Reddit banned QAnon communities for inciting violence, publishing non-public data, and harassing users. While QAnon’s conspiracy communities have been brought to the internet margins, especially the 8kun bulletin board (formerly 8chan), it still ranks head-on on major social media platforms. For example, Pizzagate’s conspiracy theory, a subset of QAnon, recently reappeared in TikTok, and a false theory of child traffic connected to Wayfair, also connected to QAnon, swept through social media this month. The Twitter spokesman said the resolution to purge QAnon’s accounts came after the platform began receiving more and more coordinated harassment reports recently, adding that Twitter has been running with outdoor experts to track QAnon activity on and off its platform.