Disclaimer: Please note that this news release was sent by
Labour Against Antisemitism on behalf of a coalition
of campaigners, and is not an LAAS initiative.
- High profile Twitters users, including leading figures in the
Jewish community, have announced a 48-hour ‘walkout’ of the
social media platform beginning Monday 27 July at 9.00am.
- The action follows the inadequate response by Twitter to
grime star Wiley’s antisemitic tirade, which started on Friday
and by Saturday morning was still ongoing.
- Celebrities, politicians and community activists have agreed
not to use the Twitter platform as a protest against the failure
of Twitter to enforce its own rules and take down Wiley’s account
after the grime star broadcast a series of antisemitic tweets to
his over 500,000 followers.
- Wiley’s is just one of a recent number of high profile and
influential Twitter accounts that has incited racial hatred
against Jews, receiving an insufficient response from the
platform provider. This incident reflects the need for clear
legislation, such as the Online Harm Reduction Bill.
A spokesperson said:
“The ‘walkout’ we are announcing today is to show that the
Jewish community and its allies have had enough of platforms like
Twitter acting as loudspeakers for antisemitism, amplifying the
hatred of Jews to millions of other social media users.
As soon as Wiley began posting his antisemitic tweets on
Friday Twitter was flooded with requests to have his account
taken down. In response Twitter deleted a couple of his tweets
and gave the grime star a brief suspension. It was a completely
inadequate response.
Unless there is an immediate change in how Twitter operates
then there will be further action, including legal action,
against the organisation.”
END
Notes:
- The action will begin at 09.00am, Monday 27 July.
- Campaigners will be using the #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate hashtag.
- Supporters confirmed include , Nick Cohen,
Jeremy Drysdale, Beverley Knight, MP, Shappi
Khorsandi, Labour Against Antisemitism, Fiyaz Mughal, Muslims
Against Antisemitism, , Tracy Ann
Oberman, Andi Oliver, Arlene Phillips, Trevor Phillips, Rachel
Riley, Rob Rinder, Sathnam Sanghera, Simon Schama, David
Schneider, , and Campaign Against Antisemitism with more
expected to join the campaign as awareness is raised.
-
Online Harm Reduction
Bill
-
‘Wiley dropped by management
over anti-Semitic posts’
