Controversial British activist Tommy Robinson has been banned from Twitter…again. This time, however, it seems that the ban is permanent, according to published reports. Even though Twitter has a policy about not commenting on individual accounts, they violate this standard whenever it’s deemed to be of benefit to the company. Although, to be fair, it was an off the record confirmation, rather than an official one.
Tommy Robinson – ex-leader of the English Defence League – has been banned from Twitter.
His account is marked as being “suspended”, but the BBC has learned that the US company has decided to permanently revoke his access.
Twitter declined to comment, but it is understood the decision was taken after Mr Robinson was judged to have breached its “hateful conduct” policy.
It had previously temporarily suspended the activist several times…
Most recently, Twitter had blocked his account for a week at the start of March.
He said at the time that the reason was that he had posted that “90% of grooming gang convictions are Muslims”.
The censorship of right-wing voices on Twitter is such commonplace now that it’s almost not even worth writing up. I say almost, because it’s always good to point out the double standard that exists on social media. It’s fine if you wish for President Trump’s death, or tweet about how white people are complete scum, but if you criticize Muslims or transgendered individuals, then you’re immediately on the chopping block.
Such is the state of play in the Current Year, 2018. I imagine it will have to get worse before it gets better. And the only way it’s going to get better at all is with rival social media companies, like Gab, who are dedicated to as much free speech as is legally possible.
