- Patreon will terminate accounts promoting QAnon Conspiracy Theory
- QAnon conspiracies are mainly focused on current President Donald Trump
- Other Social Media sites are also taking down QAnon’s content
Company’s official announcement
Membership site Patreon on Thursday shared an update to its policies, saying it would no longer support creator accounts that “advance disinformation promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory.” QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory that falsely alleges there’s a “deep state” plot against US President Donald Trump.
Patreon says a small number of creators on its platform have supported QAnon through their work.
“Because of this, and the fact that we have seen a number of other online platforms become overrun with pages and groups actively focused around QAnon disinformation, we are taking action,” the company said in a blog post.
“From now on, QAnon-dedicated creators that are identified by our Policy and Trust & Safety teams will have their accounts removed from Patreon.”
Meanwhile, creators who “have propagated some QAnon content” but aren’t dedicated to spreading the misinformation will have the chance to comply with the updated guidelines. Patreon will reach out to creators in the coming days to offer guidance on how the new policy will affect their accounts.
Moving forward, QAnon-dedicated accounts advancing disinformation and propagating QAnon content that is identified by Patreon’s Policy and Trust & Safety teams, will be removed from the platform.
Detailed breakdown of the Announcement
Patreon said, “Creators who have propagated some QAnon content, but are not dedicated to spreading QAnon disinformation, will have the opportunity to bring their campaigns into compliance with our updated guidelines,”.
“Creators whose campaigns seek to analyse the QAnon conspiracy theory will not be impacted by this policy change. To date, the majority of creator accounts discussing QAnon fall into this last category,” it added.
“This policy change applies only to creators engaged in spreading QAnon-supporting disinformation,” Patreon notes. “Simply mentioning, entertaining, reporting on, or debunking QAnon is not a violation of our guidelines. This policy update is exclusively addressing the propagation of disinformation related to QAnon.”
The platform will reach out to these three types of creators. These creators will provide information related to its updated guidelines.
QAnon is a far-right-wing conspiracy theory movement. Multiple online platforms have taken various steps to limit QAnon content. This is because the movement has had harmful consequences in the past.
Facebook has completely banned QAnon content, labeling it a militarised movement. Facebook said that it had expanded its Dangerous Individuals and Organisations policy to address QAnon activity on its platform. It will now remove all Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts related to QAnon.
Social media sites have cracked down the QAnon content. They will take down any misinformation even if it does not promote violent content.
