If you didn’t know it, the notion of the existence of such a thing as the “deep state” is treated as a “conspiracy theory” in mainstream US media, and also by Google.
(Knowing what all of us who went to school know about human history over the last 3,000+ years, the existence of “a state within a state” should by no means be a shockingly outrageous and/or impossible idea to explore. Nevertheless, here we are.)
CNET says that Google on Thursday removed three apps from its Play Store for peddling “QAnon conspiracy theory.”
The website bases its report on that of another called “Media Matters for America” – who in turn describe themselves a not-for-profit dedicated to “correcting conservative misinformation in the US.”
It appears that Google acted when this latter website flagged the said apps in the Play Store.
The article says, vaguely enough, that “an FBI field office” last year produced a memo that quoted QAnon as “a potential domestic terrorism threat.”
Meanwhile, the apps – called QMAP, Q Alerts! and Q Alerts LITE – all seem to draw from the QAnon segment of US President Trump’s supporter base, dating back to his first campaign.
The QAnon story is pretty old, and the apps seem to have existed on Play Store for a while now – so what’s Google’s sudden problem?
“Now more than ever,” said a Google spokesperson, “combating misinformation on the Play Store is a top priority for the team.”
But what makes now more important than ever? That’s not a question CNET asked. Instead, the website wanted to know how many times the apps had been downloaded, and how much money the developers made. Google was in no mood to provide any answer to these questions, though.
But the report reveals that the sudden onslaught against QAnon apps is not limited to Google alone – but when has any censorship wave ever been contained to a single social media platform.
Instead, completely (un)surprisingly, Facebook also recently took to removing pages containing this type of content, citing a rule called “inauthentic behavior.”
