Facebook announced Tuesday the company will take down pages, groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory that falsely alleges a "deep state" plot against President Donald Trump.
The social network said it would remove the content even if it doesn't contain violent content, a shift in policy showing the oft-criticized social media giant is taking stronger steps to eliminate the harmful spread of political misinformation. Previously, Facebook said that it would only remove QAnon accounts, pages and groups if they discussed potential violence.
Now, the company said it is taking a tougher stance against QAnon content because it has seen posts that included different forms of harm, including false claims about certain groups alleged to have started the West Coast wildfires.
"Additionally, QAnon messaging changes very quickly and we see networks of supporters build an audience with one message and then quickly pivot to another," the company said in a statement. "We aim to combat this more effectively with this update that strengthens and expands our enforcement against the conspiracy theory movement."
Facebook said it has already removed more than 1,500 QAnon pages and groups containing discussions of potential violence. Last month, the company announced anyone "running ads that praise, support or represent militarized social movements and QAnon" would also be banned from the platform.
Similarly, Twitter suspended thousands of QAnon-related accounts in July.
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