Facebook and Instagram Crackdown on QAnon and Antifa Occurred on 19 Aug 2020

Facebook released an update on how the platform has been dealing with “violent organizations.” This of course included the non-violent conspiracy group QAnon:

As a result of some of the actions we’ve already taken, we’ve removed over 790 groups, 100 Pages and 1,500 ads tied to QAnon from Facebook, blocked over 300 hashtags across Facebook and Instagram, and additionally imposed restrictions on over 1,950 Groups and 440 Pages on Facebook and over 10,000 accounts on Instagram.

And it wasn’t just QAnon. Facebook reported a relevantly smaller (but still somewhat significant) number of enforcement measures taken against pages, ads, and groups related to Antifa (a far left organization).

For militia organizations and those encouraging riots, including some who may identify as Antifa, we’ve initially removed over 980 groups, 520 Pages and 160 ads from Facebook. We’ve also restricted over 1,400 hashtags related to these groups and organizations on Instagram.

As eventually happens with censorship, it slowly grows to include everyone.