Twitter suspends another white supremacist after Tell MAMA investigation
Twitter suspended a white supremacist account a week after Tell MAMA flagged several of their racist tweets.
Tell MAMA remains a trusted flagger on the platform, despite raising concerns previously about the potential direction it may take under the ownership of Elon Musk – owing to concerns about increased racism and hate on platform (which Musk denies).
Tell MAMA received an update today (December 8) confirming the account suspension following our initial reporting on December 1, 2022.
A member of the public flagged the @NoballsBobby weeks earlier, concerned about its racist targeting of the UK’s first minority ethnic prime minister Rishi Sunak, its promotion of Enoch Powell and anti-Muslim conspiracies about a so-called “Islamic takeover” of the Home Office.
Other racialised memes and tropes flagged to us had linked Muslims and refugees broadly to criminality, rape, and child sexual exploitation.
Twitter removed the above examples for breaching its policies on hateful conduct, which cumulatively resulted in a permanent account suspension.
Chillingly, the account propagated the racist conspiracy of a so-called “white genocide” – ideas that inspired various acts of white supremacist terror and violence.
Credit: Twitter.com
This is the second example in recent weeks of how we helped remove high-profile white supremacists from the platform – we previously reported on the suspension of an account that praised the Dover terrorist Andrew Leak.
When reporting such harmful and hateful materials, Twitter allows users to add additional context (280 characters) that might help explain why it breaches such policies. Twitter, however, cautions that it will “guarantee that we’ll take action based on the info provided here” – but it is a step we encourage users to consider when reporting. In addition, as a third party, Tell MAMA is happy to take this step if requested.
The option to add additional context appears towards the end of the reporting form when done via Twitter’s API.
Twitter also provides a more detailed reporting form via its website, allowing individuals to add more context than the API platform allows.
Get advice from our confidential and free helpline on 0800 456 1226. Or through our free iOS or Android apps. Report through our online form. Alternatively, please leave us a WhatsApp message at 0734 184 6086.
The post Twitter suspends another white supremacist after Tell MAMA investigation appeared first on TELL MAMA.
Categories: News, White Supremacy
'We in Tell MAMA are greatly concerned about Twitter's direction. We know that many who worked on issues such as online safety and safeguarding have lost their jobs. Nevertheless, we will always advocate for the safety of communities on this platform.' 
Former Malaysia PM Mahathir refuses to apologise for France attack comments
Former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad defends his widely condemned comments on attacks by Muslim extremists in France, saying that they were taken out of context as he criticised Twitter and Facebook for removing his posts.
The 95-year-old sparked widespread outrage when he wrote on his blog on Thursday that “Muslims have a right to be angry and kill millions of French people for the massacres of the past”.
Twitter removed a tweet from Mr Mahathir containing the remark, which it said glorified violence, while France’s digital minister demanded the company also ban Mr Mahathir from its platform.
“I am indeed disgusted with attempts to misrepresent and take out of context what I wrote on my blog,” Mr Mahathir said in a statement.
He said critics failed to read his posting in full, especially the next sentence which read: “But by and large Muslims have not applied the ‘eye for an eye’ law. Muslims don’t. The French shouldn’t. Instead the French should teach their people to respect other people’s feelings.”
He said Twitter and Facebook removed the posting despite his explanation, and slammed the move as hypocritical.
“On the one hand, they defended those who chose to display offending caricatures of Prophet Mohammed … and expect all Muslims to swallow it in the name of freedom of speech and expression,” he said.
“On the other, they deleted deliberately that Muslims had never sought revenge for the injustice against them in the past”, thereby stirring French hatred for Muslims, he added.
On Twitter, however, that sentence was not deleted. A staff member for Mr Mahathir said the entire posting was removed by Facebook.
Facebook Malaysia said in an email that it removed Mr Mahathir’s posting for violating its policies, adding: “We do not allow hate speech on Facebook and strongly condemn any support for violence, death or physical harm.”
The comments by the two-time prime minister were in response to calls by Muslim nations to boycott French products after French leader Emmanuel Macron described Islam as a religion “in crisis” and vowed to crack down on radicalism following the murder of a French teacher who showed his class a cartoon depicting the prophet of Islam.
His remarks also came as a Tunisian man killed three people at a church in the southern French city of Nice.
The US ambassador to Malaysia, Kamala Shirin Lakhdir, said on Friday that she “strongly disagreed” with Mr Mahathir’s statement, adding in a statement: “Freedom of expression is a right, calling for violence is not.”
Mr Mahathir has been viewed as an advocate of moderate Islamic views and a spokesman for the interests of developing countries.
At the same time, he has pointedly criticised Western society and nations as well as their relationships to the Muslim world, while he has been denounced in Israel and elsewhere for making anti-Semitic remarks.
The post Former Malaysia PM Mahathir refuses to apologise for France attack comments appeared first on Faith Matters.
Categories: Emmanuel Macron, France comments, Malaysia Pm Mahathir, News, Nice