Twitter announced on Monday that it had “permanently suspended” 70,000 accounts affiliated with the pro-Trump movement QAnon since Friday, to prevent them from using the social network for violent purposes, as for the riots in Washington last week. .
• Read also: Facebook does not plan to lift Trump account suspension
• Read also: Household on Twitter, Talking offline, the social network Gab explodes
• Read also: Trump’s closed account: Mayor says it’s not up to Twitter to regulate
The platform undertook a purge that began Friday with the final blocking of the account of the US president, accused of having encouraged his supporters to disrupt the certification of the victory of Democrat Joe Biden by Congress.
“These accounts were sharing dangerous content associated with QAnon on a large scale. They were essentially devoted to spreading conspiracy theories throughout the service, ”Twitter said in a statement.
The number of evicted accounts is high, as many individuals had more than one.
Most major platforms have taken unprecedented action since supporters of the billionaire Republican stormed the Capitol for several hours on Wednesday, shocking the country and tarnishing its image internationally.
Facebook and Twitter, in particular, have indefinitely suspended the account of Donald Trump, who has not ceased, for months, to discredit the electoral process, and to accuse Democrats without proof of having “stolen the election”.
To justify their decision, the two networks made particular reference to the risk of future violence, between now and the inauguration ceremony of Joe Biden.
“Plans for future armed demonstrations are proliferating on Twitter and elsewhere, including for a second attack on the Capitol on January 17, 2021,” Twitter noted on Friday.
The tweet network was Donald Trump’s primary communication tool, reaching his 88 million subscribers daily.
The decision of the social network was welcomed freshly, including by some European leaders like Angela Merkel, who considered this decision “problematic”, because it shows the omnipotence of platforms in terms of freedom of expression.
QAnon is an extreme right-wing conspiracy movement. Its followers defend the idea that Donald Trump is waging a secret war against a global liberal sect made up of satanist pedophiles.