Britain First Twitter account suspended; including accounts of Britain First leaders
Twitter has suspended the accounts of far right Britain First political party in the UK as well as the accounts of its leader Paul Golding and deputy leader Jayda Fransen.
Twitter has recently vowed to do more to tackle hate speech posted onto the site, and has just introduced an updated policy governing what can and cannot be posted onto their site. In addition to the updated policy, Twitter has suspended a number of accounts belonging to various far-right users known for posting both fake news and hateful content.
These include the official Twitter account for Britain First, its leader Paul Golding and its deputy leader Jayda Fransen, who last month had her tweets controversially retweeted by US President Donald Trump.
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All of these accounts have continually posted streams of fake news online designed to act as propaganda for the far-right. Such fake news retweeted by Britain First include digitally altered images, the persistent claim that illegal immigrants are given higher benefits than pensioners and a fake story that claimed a TfL officer prevented poppy sellers from selling outside a train station. These are only a small number of fake stories shared by the extremist group.
We’ve spend a great deal of time debunking the nonsense started or fuelled by Britain First, so the potential removal of their accounts from Twitter can only be seen as a good step in regard to tackling the circulation of fake news online.
However Twitter has so far refused to comment on the removals, and it is unclear if the suspensions will be permanent or a temporary ban.
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Updated Twitter rules governing the posting of hateful speech now reads –
Accounts that affiliate with organizations that use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes. Groups included in this policy will be those that identify as such or engage in activity — both on and off the platform — that promotes violence. This policy does not apply to military or government entities and we will consider exceptions for groups that are currently engaging in (or have engaged in) peaceful resolution.
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Content that glorifies violence or the perpetrators of a violent act. This includes celebrating any violent act in a manner that may inspire others to replicate it or any violence where people were targeted because of their membership in a protected group. We will require offending Tweets to be removed and repeated violations will result in permanent suspension.
However the accounts are for now suspended, meaning they are not visible and all their tweets have been removed.
Other Twitter accounts suspended in the purge include the American white nationalist Jared Taylor and the American Nazi party.
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