Tech

Amazon removes QAnon merch from site after Capitol riot

You’ll have to go elsewhere for a ‘WWG1WGA’ mug.

Photo of Libby Cohen

Libby Cohen

picture of qanon merchandise on amazon

Amazon joined other big tech companies in their newfound campaigns against the far-right, with the e-commerce giant removing QAnon merch from its site on Monday.

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QAnon-related items will no longer be available for purchase on the world’s largest retail site. The move comes alongside bans and removal of far-right content on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

The sites have used the raid on the Capitol by President Donald Trump’s supporters as justification for the bans.

QAnon supporters were among the thousands that participated in the riot in Washington, D.C.. Q fans follow the conspiracies spread online by an anonymous person named Q. The conspiracy theory ferevently supports President Donald Trump and other far-right ideals.

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Prior to Amazon’s removal, QAnon books did relatively well on the retail site. Amazon also sold items like T-shirts and other souvenirs.

Amazon now says that these items violate policies that ban offensive items and inappropriate content.

The site also announced that it would no longer host Parler, a far-right social media site. Google and Apple have also removed Parler from their app stores after the Capitol riots.

Alongside Amazon, Twitter last night also cleared its site of 70,000 QAnon accounts, according to USA Today.

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“We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm. Given the violent events in Washington, D.C., and increased risk of harm, we began permanently suspending thousands of accounts that were primarily dedicated to sharing QAnon content on Friday afternoon,” Twitter wrote in a blog post.

As part of the QAnon account purge, Twitter is limiting engagement on tweets flagged for violating the site’s civic integrity policy. Over 200 of Trump’s tweets were flagged following the election, leading up to his ban last week.

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