British commentator and comedian, Katie Hopkins, who is notorious for her often downright racist remarks and hateful messages has been suspended by Twitter.
The suspension was handed to her following a call for the social network to carry out a “full review” of her account.
Hopkins had been accused of spreading hate through her Twitter account.
She has over a million followers on Twitter and had been targeted for several Twitter takedowns.
The only tweet showing on her account is one critical tweet accusing her of making racist remarks towards rapper, Stormzy.
According to Twitter, Hopkins had been temporarily banned from accessing her account for violating their hateful-conduct policy. The policy prohibits promoting violence or inciting racial-stoked harm.
The rule also prohibits religious or gender-based violence towards others.
Hopkins was suspended on Twitter barely two days after a co-presenter of a Channell 4’s “Countdown”, Rachel Riley, who is also an anti-racism campaigner, met some representatives from Twitter and advocated for the removal of Hopkins’ account.
The Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) campaign group had organized the meeting between Riley and the Twitter reps. CCDH had called for permanent deletion of Hopkins’ Twitter account.
“We are pleased that preliminary action appears to have been taken by Twitter against the identity-based hate actor, Katie Hopkins following product discussions with Twitter’ UK office,” Imran Ahmed, CCDH’s CEO said.
“There is a long road ahead before social media is made safe for dialogue, information exchange and the formation and maintenance of relationships.
“The fact parents are so hesitant and fearful of allowing children on to social media platforms shows how toxic many of these environments have become.
“We believe social media can empower the world to be even better, but handing megaphones to hate actors is irresponsible and dangerous,” said Imran.
Speaking on the action, a Twitter spokesperson said “Keeping Twitter safe is a top priority for us – abuse and harassment have no place on the service. We take enforcement action against any account that is violative of our rules – which includes violation of our hateful conduct policy and abusive behaviour policy.
“These rules apply to everyone using our service – regardless of the account involved”
[Independent.co.uk]
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