Facebook, Twitter, and others have recently started to ban s that spread QAnon conspiracy theories. However, the changes have possibly come too late to assist in removing misinformation on the platforms, due to how quickly it has already taken hold. Like many conspiracies online, by the time these services make changes, the damage is often already done.
There has been quite a lot of recent discussion about the effects that social media has on the Presidential election. Social media has become a breeding ground for fake news and targeted disinformation, which has quickly become a huge problem. Although it can always be troubling when individuals fall for false information, the spread of certain conspiracy theories, like QAnon, has led to violence and attacks.
Websites and services are spreads throughout social media. Although targeting this baseless information will assist in removing several of the major s that push the narrative, disinformation has been allowed to bleed through social media for far too long. It may very well be too late for these bans to remove all traces of QAnon from these sites.
Why Facebook's QAnon Ban Comes Too Late
QAnon conspiracy is embedded into social media and has grown exponentially over the past few years. What started as a niche group on 4chan has become much larger than anyone could have ever imagined. On the surface, QAnon feels as ridiculous as many of the other popular conspiracy theories that have spread over time, insisting that left-leaning US politicians and elites lead a global human trafficking ring. However, the idea is obviously much more sinister and politically motivated in its accusations.
Despite the lack of evidence for many of the QAnon conspiracy's assertions, it has still found a way to gain popularity on social media. This has mainly been possible due to the targeted dissemination of specific information to s. Many of the Q posters know that leading with the essential tenants of the conspiracy would most likely turn many people away from the idea, so they've become much more calculated about how they bring more individuals into the ideology. It's much easier to push more of this content to the forefront.
This shows how QAnon has grown much larger and broader than most people realize. The vague nature of the Q conspiracy has allowed itself to mutate and absorb any line of conspiratorial thinking, as long as it's in the service of the larger goal or narrative. This also means that banning s is only a small part of the process of removing misinformation's hold on social media. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, all left this problem to fester, even when informed of the negative effects it could have, and now the consequences may be too large to combat. To fully tackle the problems that these misinformation campaigns cause, these sites need to develop a better way to handle how false information spreads on their platforms, and they need to catch it early enough. Once it spreads, it's already done what it set out to do on Facebook or elsewhere.