Youtube also cracks down on qanon conspiracy theories

After twitter and facebook, youtube also tightens its action against the conspiracy theory movement qanon. Google’s video platform announced on thursday that it will remove more content containing conspiracy theories that justify violence. In this context, youtube explicitly referred to qanon in the blog entry.

The central claim of qanon supporters is that there is a conspiracy against U.S. President donald trump in the deeper layers of the U.S. Government apparatus. In addition, they often claim that prominent politicians of the democratic party in the USA love to be treated with hormones extracted from the blood of children. One strand of this was the "pizzagate" theory, which led to an armed man storming into a washington pizzeria in late 2016 to free children allegedly held captive there. He was arrested by the police; no one was injured.

At the same time, youtube prohibits attacking users by calling them followers of qanon or "pizzagate".

Facebook had announced in early october to delete all pages and groups that represent qanon. This also applies to instagram accounts. In mid august, facebook had initially only announced that it would take action against qanon supporters if they threatened violence or talked about it. Twitter had already locked out qanon supporters and blocked several thousand accounts in july.

Qanon continued to gain notoriety in the U.S. In recent months. In the parliamentary election, which was held together with the presidential election on 3. Coming up on november, there are several candidates in the race on the republican side who have shown sympathy for qanon ideas. Trump also repeatedly retweeted content from qanon supporters on twitter.