Twitter permanently suspends Flynn, Sidney Powell, says they engaged in 'harmful activity' related to QAnon

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Twitter has moved to permanently suspend former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn on Friday after determining he had been engaged in "harmful activity."

A Twitter spokesperson told Fox News that Flynn's account had been engaged in "harmful activity" and was so harmful that they made the move on Friday to permanently suspend him from the platform.

The spokesperson told me that Flynn's tweets were related to QAnon and calls to violence. 

Twitter has also moved to permanently suspend his attorney Sidney Powell's account and Ron Watkins'. Watkins is the head of the website 8kun, which had been named 8chan, and hosts posts about the QAnon conspiracy theory.

"The accounts have been suspended in line with our policy on Coordinated Harmful Activity," a Twitter spokesperson said. "We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm, and given the renewed potential for violence surrounding this type of behavior in the coming days, we will permanently suspend accounts that are solely dedicated to sharing QAnon content." 

Twitter told Fox News that when they determine a group, movement, or campaign meets the criteria for designation as engaged in Coordinated Harmful Activity, they may suspend accounts whose primary use is to "propagate and/or encourager engagement in the identified coordinated harmful activity."

QAnon is a conspiracy theory centered on the baseless belief that President Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the "deep state" and a child sex trafficking ring run by global elites who are satanic pedophiles and cannibals.

The conspiracy theory emerged on a 4chan message board in late 2017 but has crept into mainstream politics. QAnon followers have appeared at Trump's rallies wearing clothes and hats with QAnon symbols and slogans.

Flynn received a presidential pardon in November after pleading guilty to making a false statement to the FBI in 2017 regarding his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak as part of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller. 

His attorney on the case, Powell, also aided the Trump campaign as they mounted dozens of legal battles in states across the nation to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election. 

The move from Twitter to suspend the accounts came a day after the platform locked Trump out of his account for the first time. 

The president posted a video and a tweet urging protesters to "go home" after they stormed the Capitol Building Wednesday during a joint session of Congress to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election in favor of President-elect Joe Biden, but maintained that the election was "stolen" from him. 

Twitter locked the president's account and warned that further violations of their rules, including their "Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies" would "result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account." 

The Associated Press contributed to report.