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18th Dec 2017

Twitter has suspended Britain First’s leaders

New Twitter rules have resulted in a global purge on hate speech

JOE

New Twitter rules have resulted in a global purge on hate speech.

Three major Twitter pages belonging to the far-right group, Britain First were suspended today.

Led by an “anti-hate, pro-diversity” group known as Resisting Hate, the move was carried out as part of a global #TwitterPurge campaign.

So far, the “purge” has resulted in the removal of the ultranational political organisation’s main page, and the pages belonging to its two founders, leader Paul Goulding and deputy-leader, Jayda Fransen.

https://twitter.com/ResistingHate/status/942763005179236353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.joe.ie%2Fpolitics%2Ftwitter-finally-takes-stand-hate-speech-bans-britain-first-pages-610318

On Friday, 15 December, Fransen had been released on bail in Belfast after she had appeared in court over a series of threatening remarks that she posted online. This was after she had participated in a Northern Ireland Against Terrorism rally on 6 August.

Golding was arrested at the court on Thursday, 14 December while accompanying Fransen. He was then charged “with using threatening, abusive, insulting words or behaviour” at the same rally.

The pair had recently gained international attention after US President Donald Trump retweeted a series of inflammatory anti-Islamic posts by Fransen, containing unverified videos titled, “Muslim Destroys a Statue of Virgin Mary!” and “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches.”