San Francisco (AFP)

Facebook has changed its tone with QAnon, a pro-Trump conspiracy movement, which is doing everything possible to stir up tensions and rally supporters to its cause, less than a month from the US elections.

The social media giant, regularly accused by civil society of lax vis-à-vis hatred and online violence, announced on Tuesday the withdrawal of all accounts, pages and groups linked to this nebula, on its main platform and on Instagram.

The number of followers of this far-right movement has exploded in the run-up to the US presidential election, and as it has improved its tactics to cast a wider net, beyond the convinced nucleus that sees the tenant of the White House a sort of Messiah, slayer of the corrupt and pedophile elite.

Facebook had already cracked down on QAnon and other "militarized social movements" to prevent them from using the platform to organize their actions.

But this time, even the pages that do not "contain violent content" will be deleted if they are associated with the movement, the Californian group said in a statement.

Facebook has indeed noticed that supporters of these many conspiracy theories went from one subject to another to constantly attract new audiences.

"While we removed the content related to QAnon which celebrated and supported violence, we saw other content (from the movement) appear on other subjects", relates the social network.

- "Sincere effort" -

For example, "claims that certain groups of people are behind the wildfires on the West Coast (of the United States)," Facebook continues.

The company said it would take several weeks to deal with the occurrences.

In August, she had already withdrawn nearly 800 groups, 100 pages and 1,500 advertisements directly linked to this movement on Facebook.

She also took steps to reduce the reach of more than 10,000 Instagram accounts and nearly 2,000 groups and 440 Facebook pages, such as limiting recommendations, demoting them on news feeds, making them harder to find, prevent them from advertising or selling products.

"We have seen movements grow which, even if they do not directly organize violence, celebrate violent acts, show they have weapons and suggest they are going to use them, or have fans susceptible to violent behavior. ", then explained the group.

Several rights and freedoms NGOs accuse Facebook of not fighting enough against disinformation, hate messages and manipulative campaigns, which have repercussions in real life and in democratic processes.

"We hope that this is indeed a sincere effort to eliminate hatred and anti-Semitism from their platform and not just an impulsive response to pressure from elected officials and the public," Jonathan Greenblatt, president, responded on Tuesday. of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

- "They like me a lot" -

Along with the NAACP, the leading African-American civil rights organization, and other organizations, the ADL ran a campaign to boycott Facebook advertising this summer, followed by hundreds of companies.

QAnon is one of the problematic groups that associations would like to see disappear from the networks.

They are spreading many unfounded theories, such as the idea that the coronavirus is a conspiracy to control people with vaccines and 5G.

They think Donald Trump will break the plot.

Asked about them on August 19, following Facebook's measures, the Republican billionaire said he saw in them above all "people who love our country".

"I don't know much about them. I understood that they like me very much, which I appreciate," he added, suggesting that their recent surge in popularity was linked to the protests that took place. place in Portland (northwest) or New York, against racism and police violence.

Twitter also deleted thousands of QAnon-linked accounts this summer.

© 2020 AFP