Twitter Inc. announced today that it is cracking down on QAnon, a far-right conspiracy theory movement, saying the content has the potential to do harm.

The company said it has banned more than 7,000 accounts related to the group, but overall, that will affect around 150,000 accounts. Web addresses associated with the movement will be blocked, while QAnon-related content will no longer appear as a trending topic.

QAnon is an internet conspiracy theory that was started on 4chan in 2017 by someone using the handle “Q.” The theory goes that Donald Trump is battling against members of the so-called “Deep State” and a that a faction of Democrats and well-known figures have engaged in pedophilia and sex trafficking.

“These accounts are engaging in behavior that is designed to further the spread of content that has resulted in clear and well-documented informational, physical, societal and psychological offline harm,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement. “We have been monitoring the situation closely and determined that additional action is now required pursuant to the Twitter rules against our policies on spam and platform manipulation as well as abusive behavior.”

Twitter added that the spokesperson will remain nameless because of the threat of harassment. One of the groups’ trademarks is to target individuals and accuse them of certain wrongdoings. American model Chrissy Teigen has been one of those people, with QAnon harassing her for her relationship convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“I had a real life before this,” Teigen tweeted at the height of the harassment. “It’s not just weirdos in random towns. these people are all over. I hate what some people have become and what social has done for this kind of reach.” Last week she said the harassment was “too much,” adding that she feared the group was “dangerous.”

Twitter is just one of many social media platforms that QAnon uses, and though it has taken some time for the company to take a hard line against the group, other platforms have yet to commit to a broad crackdown. “Twitter is late out the gate,” tweeted Harvard’s Shorenstein Center Research Director Joan Donovan. “Facebook and YouTube aren’t even in the race.”

Photo: Tony Webster/Flickr