Twitter suspends notorious UK hate preacher for violating abuse rules
Twitter has confirmed it has temporarily suspended the account of controversial rightwing commentator, Katie Hopkins. The move was reported earlier by the BBC.
Hopkins, a former MailOnline columnist and presenter on LBC radio, is a veteran of the social media platform, joining Twitter just under a decade ago - and using it amplify her brand of far-right leaning, liberal-baiting politics. She regularly tweets anti-immigration and anti-Islam sentiments, and has claimed that white British people are now a discriminated against minority.
It's not clear which of Hopkins' tweets led Twitter to finally pull the trigger, although she had recently targeted black British rapper Stormzy for a series of abusive tweets.
In a statement confirming the account suspension, Twitter told us:
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 violations of our hateful conduct policy and abusive behaviour policy. These rules apply to everyone using our service - regardless of the account involved.
At the time of writing Hopkins' account is still visible - although all but one of her tweets has been deleted.
It is not clear whether Hopkins herself deleted the majority of her tweets. Twitter pointed out that users may choose to delete their own Tweets at any time, including by using third-party services which provide the option of deleting all tweets
Two non-visible tweets on Hopkins' feed are listed as 'no longer available' for violating Twitter's rules.
The remaining visible tweet is a retweet of another user accusing her of inciting racial hatred - which contains a screengrab of a number of abusive tweets Hopkins made targeting Stormzy.
If Katie Hopkins' latest tweets on Stormzy don't constitute incitement to racial hatred I really don't know what does. She is a criminal. @Twitter needs to act" pic.twitter.com/CbUO5CGl48
- Nitin Sawhney (@thenitinsawhney) December 23, 2019
Hopkins' Twitter biog lists her as "Milo's Mum" - a reference to Milo Yiannopoulos, another controversial rightwing troll who Twitter banned in 2016 after he incited his followers to harass Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones.