Father Ted creator Graham Linehan has lashed out at Twitter in a blog post explaining why he has quit the social media platform.
Twitter has come in for criticism in the last 18 months for its ineffectiveness when dealing with its abusive members. Just last week, the site was lambasted after it suspended actress Rose McGowan’s account after she spoke out against sexual abuse in the movie industry.
Now Linehan has added his voice to the many taking Twitter to task, and he is voting with his feet — by deactivating his profile.
In a post on his Medium profile, Linehan explained his decision in full, making references to Twitter’s facilitation of white supremacists such as Richard Spencer, as well as their acceptance of Donald Trump’s behaviour:
Right! Have been thinking about it for a while, but I’m going to deactivate my Twitter account. With Twitter such a cesspool, the least I can do is rob @jack and @biz of one blue tick. I can’t be complicit anymore.
Primary reason is Twitter’s refusal to suspend Donald Trump for his North Korea threat. This was so obviously a violation of their own ToS and they didn’t suspend his account or even try to delete it. Meanwhile, the toilet denizens that brought us every harassment campaign of the last few years have been gaming Twitter’s algorithms in order to ban people for telling verified Nazis to go fuck themselves.
And that’s the next reason. Not just Nazis but VERIFIED NAZIS. Richard Spencer who recently was seen seig heiling [sic] his little heart out and he’s given a blue tick like he’s Gwyneth Paltrow. Well, if people like him and Pizzagate lie-peddler Cernovich have a blue tick, I don’t want one. I don’t want to be a part of that club.
(Note To Twitter: Cernovich uses Periscope to smear people and then deletes the evidence. If I know that, how come you don’t? And if you do know that, how on earth is he still active on your site, let alone verified?)
Apparently, we verified accounts get a 12 month period to change our minds after we deactivate. This is Twitter’s very sneaky way of dealing with celebrity flounces. They should ask themselves why people want to leave in the first place.
Thanks to all the kind words from people over the last few days! Don’t worry, I’ll see you all around somewhere. Maybe on Mastodon.
P.S Also replies are broken. WHY WON’T THEY FIX REPLIES?
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