Kathleen Stansberry, assistant professor of strategic communications, commended the social media platform for removing QAnon accounts and “taking more of a leadership position in terms of moderating content.”
A recent Rolling Stone article examining Twitter’s decision this week to remove 7,000 QAnon accounts for violating the social media platform’s terms and policies includes analysis from Kathleen Stansberry, assistant professor of strategic communications and faculty member in the media analytics program.
In addition to banning thousands of QAnon-related accounts, the social media giant also plans to prevent URLs associated with QAnon from being shared on the platform, and ban content associated with QAnon from appearing in its Trending section.
According to the Rolling Stone article, published on July 22, “Twitter has long served as one of the primary hubs of the QAnon movement, which is centered on the belief that left-wing public figures are involved in a Deep State conspiracy.” Among the experts commending Twitter’s decision to curtail QAnon content was Stansberry.
“Twitter has changed and they do seem to be taking more of a leadership position in terms of moderating content and better enforcing terms of use policies and I applaud them for it,” Stansberry told author EJ Dickson.
In the article, Stansberry also addressed how the decision does not hamper free speech, an argument made by the far-right and QAnon-adjacent figures.
“Twitter is a private company and if you don’t adhere to their terms of use you shouldn’t be able to use it, just like you can’t go into a store and start screaming profanities and expect not be told to leave,” she said.