Que non has really moved from what was a bunch of kind of misinformation in general to actually planning different types of violence in the real world.

Now the world's most popular platform is trying to stop it, but can cure a non be contained well.

First, let's deal with what it iss Q.

And owns a conspiracy theory movement built around two central false beliefs.

One that Q is a powerful person, perhaps even President Trump, who post clues to guide followers towards the truth.

And to that, President Trump is waging a war against Satan worshiping pedophiles among the world's elite.

A complete lack of evidence hasn't stopped queuing on.

It began on the message boards four.

Chan and Chan Before rapid expansion on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit and YouTube on during the pandemic, interest has surged.

In response, we've seen the platforms take action in July.

Twitter ban thousands of accounts.

Now Facebook is doing the same, it says are dangerous organizations.

Operations team will proactively detect content for removal and note the name of that team.

Facebook considers Q and on dangerous.

Twitter says it wants to prevent Q and on causing offline harm.

But what danger and harm are we talking about?

Well, that brings us to the crux of this issue.

How Cunanan's misinformation connects to democracy and violence well on violence here we have the FBI in 2019 saying Q and On is occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts.

One man barricaded himself to a bridge near the Hoover Dam with an armored vehicle, another shot dead in New York mob boss he scrawled que on his hand in court.

There are other examples, too.

Then there's democracy, and in particular, Cunanan's impact on the US election.

A great deal of people who are not particularly political may have been converted via Facebook or other social media.

Groups on now have very bizarre ideas about the Democratic Party.

Certainly, Q and on is often visible when Trump supporters gather.

It's also influential in protest against Kobe restrictions around the world.

Cunanan's misinformation is definitely impacting America's democratic discourse.

But containing it well, that looks close to mission.

Impossible.

You suspect Facebook is well aware of this.

It's statement on closing Q and on account says this work will take time and will continue in the coming days and weeks.

I'd add months and years to that for four reasons.

First, Cunanan's messaging and location constantly evolves.

Honestly, they're up against the idea, and it's gonna be a bit of a whack.

Um, all I think, all across social media for quite a while.

Second, there's no agreement on what online content is okay.

In May, Mark Zuckerberg said.

I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn't be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online.

And the Internet is full of people saying things that are false, whether it's realistic or even desirable, to try and stop.

That is not a settled issue on Facebook or elsewhere.

Online 0.3.

Well, that concerns the very nature of the Web.

This is the journalist James Ball.

Across the open web, there are millions of sites, and it's much more complex tackling them.

Clearly, the tech giants could do mawr, but we can't expect them to police the entire Internet.

On the fourth point is this.

It became sort of a whirlpool of all conspiracy theories that sort of collected other conspiracy theories about the Illuminati and the Kennedys on the mortar Q.

And On becomes a whirlpool, a catchall for spiraling distrust in authority the harder it is to contain.

Meanwhile, the Q and A on story has reached this perhaps inevitable moment.

The New York Times reports Q and on believers say being banned from Facebook is proof off the conspiracy, which, of course it isn't.

But the ban on their reaction to it is proof of the strength of their convictions and is another reason why containing their movement remains profoundly difficult.