FREEDOM of speech and human rights campaigners have criticised Twitter after the social media website suspended the account of pro-independence blog Wings Over Scotland.
The suspension, since lifted, was imposed after Wings blogger Stuart Campbell took issue with a Daily Express reporter who suggested the 2014 independence referendum had been marred by violence.
The reporter, Siobhan McFadyen, last week wrote that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was ‘‘teeing up the population for more outbreaks of violence and misery with her plans to hold a second referendum”.
The article went on to say that “Nicola Sturgeon is ready to unleash yet more violence on the streets at a cost to the taxpayer” and claimed the referendum has caused “violence on the streets of Scotland and never before seen abuse”.
She also suggested Sturgeon may have broken ministerial rules by co-operating with two biographies.
Campbell took issue on Twitter with the reports in The Express.
McFadyen, using the Twitter handle @siobhanyc, responded, leading to an intense online debate. Other pro-independence supporters also challenged McFadyen’s claims. At one point Campbell tweeted: “What an utter disgrace @siobhanyc is.”
Twitter bosses deactivated the Wings Over Scotland account yesterday. In his blog, Campbell said: “As several alert readers have already spotted, our Twitter account was suspended at some point in the early hours of this morning.
‘‘We’ve had no email from Twitter offering any sort of explanation, but it seems most likely to have been at the behest of a Daily Express hack called Siobhan McFadyen who’s been huffily bleating to the company’s executives over the weekend about this tweet: “What an utter disgrace @siobhanyc is.”
He added: “As far as we can tell – it’s hard to search for anything relating to a suspended account – we’ve never sent a single tweet directly to Siobhan McFadyen, and we’ve only ever mentioned her Twitter ID in three. But all weekend she’s been howling at Twitter that lots of people have been mentioning her in tweets as a result of the two articles.”
McFadyen said on Twitter that she received more than 600 messages from supporters of Campbell, including insults and alleged death threats that she said she had reported to the police. She also said that she had been receiving abuse from pro-independence Twitter accounts since 2014’s referendum.
Last night Drew Campbell, the president of Scottish Pen, which advocates freedom of expression, criticised the suspension.
“What really concerns me is that Wings Over Scotland seems to have been suspended for making a pretty mild comment," he said.
"There have been numerous instances when people have made vile and misogynistic remarks and threats and Twitter has ignored them."
“I don’t understand why they have reacted in this case so abruptly, but not in so many others.
“I am worried whether there are double standards at play, whether because a powerful media organisation like the Daily Express is involved Twitter responded in this way when they wouldn’t have if it was simply an individual.”
McFadyen last night declined to comment other than indicating that she stood by the articles.
Pro-independence supporters and human rights activists hit back last night over Twitter’s action.
Peter Bell tweeted: “Censoring Wings Over Scotland is just not acceptable”.
Glasgow-based human rights activist Faud Alakbarov pointed out that right-wing commentator Katie Hopkins was still allowed to use Twitter.
“I don’t always agree with Wings Over Scotland but if his ban is OK by Twitter, then it’s time to suspend Katie Hopkins’ account as well,” he tweeted.
Last night a spokesman for Twitter said: “We don’t comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons.”
A spokesman for the First Minister denied that the biographies broke the Ministerial Code of Conduct because it would only apply if she had written the books herself.
“The First Minister abides by the terms of the code at all times, and in any case the issue does not arise here as she has not herself written any books about her time in office,” he said.
He also denied that the First Minister was “teeing up the population” for violence by raising the possibility of a second independence referendum.
A Daily Express spokesman did not respond to The National’s request for comment.
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