Kathleen Stansberry, assistant professor of strategic communications, commended the social media platform for removing QAnon accounts and 鈥渢aking more of a leadership position in terms of moderating content.鈥
A recent Rolling Stone article examining Twitter鈥檚 decision this week to remove 7,000 QAnon accounts for violating the social media platform鈥檚 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, 鈥淭witter 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.鈥 Among the experts commending Twitter鈥檚 decision to curtail QAnon content was Stansberry.
鈥淭witter 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,鈥 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.
鈥淭witter is a private company and if you don鈥檛 adhere to their terms of use you shouldn鈥檛 be able to use it, just like you can鈥檛 go into a store and start screaming profanities and expect not be told to leave,鈥 she said.
.