High-profile users boycott Twitter over grime star’s antisemitic rant
Twitter is facing a 48-hour boycott of its platform from a number of celebrity users and politicians, following criticism of its handling of an antisemitic rant by British grime artist Wiley.
The self-styled godfather of grime, whose real name is Richard Cowie, is being investigated by police after posting a series of antisemitic tweets over the weekend.
While some tweets were removed by Twitter for violating its policy on hate speech, others remain public on Wiley’s profile. Moreover some of the tweets that were later removed had been online for up to 12 hours before being taken down.
Home secretary Priti Patel yesterday demanded answers from Twitter and Instagram for how long it took the two companies to respond to the hate speech on their platforms.
Under the hashtag #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate, musicians Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Jessie Ware as well as actor Jason Isaacs said they would take part in the boycott which began at 9am this morning.
The official Twitter account for the Liberal Democrats said it would also be joining in the walkout, while the Labour party said it supported the protests but could not be absent from social media.
Wiley, who has more than 500,000 followers on Twitter, has been banned from his profile for seven days. He was also dropped by his management company.
In his expletive-filled rant on Twitter, which continued on Instagram, Wiley said that Jewish people have exploited Black musicians. He also compared them to the KKK.
In a statement Twitter said: “Our mission is to serve the public conversation and ensure Twitter is a place where people can make human connections, seek and receive authentic and credible information, and express themselves freely and safely.
“We have developed policies and platform capabilities designed to protect and serve the public conversation, and as always, are committed to amplifying voices from underrepresented communities and marginalised groups.”
A company spokesperson for Facebook, which owns Instagram, said: “There is no place for hate speech on Instagram. We have deleted content that violates our policies from this account and have blocked access to it for seven days.”