Patreon Becomes Latest Social Media Platform to Take On QAnon
- Accounts tied to QAnon-dedicated creators to be removed
- Followers of conspiracy theory complain of being censored
Patreon Inc. is known as a place where podcasters and other internet creators go to make money through subscriptions. But on Thursday, it became the latest social media company to address the growing presence of the conspiracy group QAnon.
The company announced in a blog post that they would be taking action against accounts who use their platform to actively spread QAnon’s beliefs. The post detailed how “QAnon-dedicated creators that are identified by our Policy and Trust & Safety teams will have their accounts removed from Patreon.”
Patreon said accounts that analyzed the QAnon phenomenon wouldn’t be impacted by the ban. Creators who have spread some QAnon ideas but “are not dedicated to spreading QAnon content” would also be given the opportunity to bring their accounts into compliance, according to the company.
A search of Patreon by Bloomberg showed that many of the larger QAnon accounts had been removed. One of the few that were still active linked directly to QMap.pub, the domain of a popular QAnon website that went offline last month after a now former Citigroup employee was identified as its developer. A second Patreon account found by Bloomberg featured multiple videos explicitly promoting QAnon.