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Supporters of the QAnon theories at a Trump event (archive picture): The FBI warns clearly
Photo: SCOTT OLSON / AFP
Social networks are a breeding ground for outlandish and sometimes openly dangerous conspiracy theories.
One of those theories with a growing following is what is known as the QAnon movement.
Less than three weeks before the US presidential election, the video platform YouTube is also tightening its crackdown on the QAnon supporters who support US President Donald Trump.
YouTube will expand its guidelines to ban content that targets individual people or groups of conspiracy theories, the company said on Thursday.
A few days ago the online networks Facebook and Instagram took action against QAnon.
"Tens of thousands of QAnon videos" have already been removed, said YouTube.
In addition, channels used by the movement have been discontinued, including those that expressly threaten violence or deny the existence of violent acts.
5G, Corona, Satanists - the conspirators take everything with them
The QAnon movement spreads the claim that the US is ruled by a criminal and satanic organization, which is said to include former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, billionaire George Soros and various Hollywood stars.
Many QAnon messages are anti-Semitic and right-wing extremist in character.
The starting point of the movement was an anonymous Internet contribution in 2017, which dealt with alleged bizarre rites of child molesters and political conspiracies.
Since then, the movement has found more and more supporters, now also in Germany, where the QAnon symbol appears at demonstrations against the corona restrictions.
Many supporters of the movement hold the unsubstantiated belief that the coronavirus is a conspiracy to subdue people through the use of vaccinations and 5G cell phone technology.
Clear warning from the federal police
The US Federal Police, the FBI, warned last year that QAnon was a movement that could "drive groups as well as individual extremists to criminal or violent actions."
There are many Trump supporters among QAnon supporters.
The US president said in August that he didn't know much about QAnon.
The supporters of the movement are "people who love our country".
Distancing sounds different - and there are numerous politicians in his Republican party who openly sympathize with QAnon.
In the USA and other countries, the pressure on the operators of large online networks to take action against hate messages and false information has increased significantly in recent months.
In view of the presidential election on November 3, the debate about such online messages is particularly intense.
Facebook and other Internet companies have already taken various measures against inciting, manipulative and misleading messages on their pages in the past few months.
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