Katie Hopkins banned from Twitter

[Lightofthephoenix]

About bloody time!

Daily Mail comments are predictable

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8440891/Katie-Hopkins-permanently-suspended-Twitter.html

"Being non Left doesn't make her Far Right automatically"

When you get banned by the Sun and the Daily Mail for your views, then that does say something about your views...

Surprised at how many people think she should have freedom of speech. Why? She does nothing but stir up hate towards vulnerable or minority groups. It's a crime. She's made a career out of being a troll. If someone is a troll on MN their post is removed. If someone behaved like this in a workplace or social group they'd likely be ostracised. It's no different that she's doing it behind a keyboard.

She totally should have her platform removed. Hopefully her 'brand' will slowly die off now.

I'm gender critical and of course I have concerns that we will go so far down the rabit hole with that that we'll no longer be allowed to name biology.
But that's a separate fight. I'm not going to support making extreme far-right views mainstream because of my fears in that area.

No-one is obliged to employ Hopkins to spout her views. No private entity is obliged to host her views if they go against their terms and conditions.
As a previous poster has said, she's free write a blog, send a letter or indeed to and shout at Speakers Corner. To a point. Because we don't have unfettered "free speech" in the UK, and we do have laws against hate speech.

I'm unsurprised that racist white people are citing this as evidence that they're terribly picked on and oppressed.

KH can say whatever she likes. No one can control what comes out if her hate spewing gob and she absolutely has the right to say what she thinks. However, Twitter do not need to agree to be her platform to say it.

I'd like to think she'd just fuck off, but she won't. She thrives on shit like this because she thinks she's important.

I find it sad for her that this is all she has to offer. She did fairly well on the apprentice if I remember rightly. She's obviously a savvy business woman. Why degrade yourself and make yourself so hated? Money obviously but her vile gob meant she lost most of that too!

It just baffles me. I'm quite sure she doesn't even believe half of the things she says, it's all for the brand.

I don’t agree with what she said but I’m appalled at the shutting down of any debate that is controversial. It’s a really backward step

That's not really what's happened though is it @Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow. She can still spout her goady 'controversial' views and people can still debate them. Twitter have just decided that they no longer wish to be one of the platforms she uses to spout said views and they are quite within their rights to do that.

Thanks for confirming you’re unhappy that racists and the far right are prevented from setting the agenda for public debate. That tells me all I need to know about you.

@Collaborate Really? Does it tell you that I'm an immigrant, a feminist, from a BAME group and that my family were in concentration camps for their ethnicity? That I've been politically active against racism and VAW most of my life? Because all those things are true.

Your post tells me everything I need to know about you. Namely that you aren't very bright and that you assume people things about people based on a couple of lines on a post without first reading or understanding what you're talking about. You prove that people need to stop read and digest other's opinions. If only to be able to explain why they are wrong.

No one person gets to decide what is acceptable thinking, no one person gets to "set the agenda" what does that even mean? KH, and the like don't have any more access to Twitter than you do. Set your own fucking agenda. If you decide to be a racist because Hopkins told you to, well that's on you really isn't it.

Free speech has been curbed at different times for the "right reasons" throughout history. Burn the books tell people what ideas are dangerous.

Racists won't go away because you tell them they can't have Twitter. They form their own alt-right twitter with other racists and no one to tell them they're wrong. No one to rebut their lies.

That's not really what's happened though is it She can still spout her goady 'controversial' views and people can still debate them. Twitter have just decided that they no longer wish to be one of the platforms she uses to spout said views and they are quite within their rights to do that.

Twitter platforms actual paedophiles. Should Twitter be the arbiter of morals for us all? They allow men to make repeated rape threats and threats of vioence against women.

Freedom of speech needs to catch up with social media.

If the majority of people use social media to engage than the we need to allow people to engage. It's not the same as you not inviting Katy Hopkins to your house because you don't want to hear her opinions.

We all have the ability to not read her feed.

@YangShanPo

She really is the worst of British, but if we want people like J.K Rowling to be able to express a currently unpopular opinion then we should allow people we don't agree with the same freedom. Tbf KH probably loves the notoriety.

Nice try, but JK's opinion that women's rights matter is not unpopular.

Free speech has been curbed at different times for the "right reasons" throughout history. Burn the books tell people what ideas are dangerous

Does spreading lies and disinformation against certain groups become free speech?

Is it ok to use a platform to promote hate against a group - and to spread disinformation, to try to reinforce and perpetuate lies against a group?

Because we all know where that leads.

No one to rebut their lies

People who follow her and believe her views don't care about her lies. They don't care about rebuttals - they just see their truth, even when it is proven to be a lie.
We all know that lies travel fast - and rebuttals don't get seen. Just look at the mass media and the lies they come out with - and then a hidden apology buried in the paper.

She has, for too long, been allowed to spread hate speech.
She has made a career out of this.
Twitter has now made the decision to suspend her from a forum that has its own rules and values.
Free speech is a right but like so many rights it comes with, those often forgotten, responsibilities.
If you spread hate, you run the risk of being removed from Twitter.
She's had a good run, but in the light of BLM she needs to be removed from her plinth. She should have gone before. I am happy she has been removed.

Nice try, but JK's opinion that women's rights matter is not unpopular.

But it probably will be in a generation. Young people broadly agree with it. When do the old "bigots" have to shut up?

Is it ok to use a platform to promote hate against a group - and to spread disinformation, to try to reinforce and perpetuate lies against a group?

Because we all know where that leads.

Nazis burned books. Stasi hid books.

Do you know what stops racism in its tracks? Fucking talking about it.

One thing I had hoped would come out of the BLM movement is the idea that everything will be OK if we just don't acknowledge racism and just try and not be racist.

You have to discuss it, you have to have something to say to point at and say >>>> Look at that. That's wrong, it is morally wrong and objectively not true for A, B and C reasons.

Freedom of speech is an amazing thing. If a man wants to post on his Twitter feed that the #metoo movement has put him off dating. Well, guess what happens? Women know to avoid him.

I'm really concerned by how many people here can't just disagree with other posters but actually say that if a poster supports free speech it's because there must be something morally bankrupt in them.

Do you know what stops racism in its tracks? Fucking talking about it

You also know how hate was encouraged against groups by the lies and propaganda that people with large platforms help spread to reinforce views and appeal to people's cognitive bias?

Do you know what stops racism in its tracks? Fucking talking about it

That went really well in Germany in the 1930s, didn't it?
Or for Tutsis in Rwanda in the 1990s.
Words have consequences.

@FishAreAcquaintancesNotFood

Thanks for confirming you’re unhappy that racists and the far right are prevented from setting the agenda for public debate. That tells me all I need to know about you.

@Collaborate Really? Does it tell you that I'm an immigrant, a feminist, from a BAME group and that my family were in concentration camps for their ethnicity? That I've been politically active against racism and VAW most of my life? Because all those things are true.

Your post tells me everything I need to know about you. Namely that you aren't very bright and that you assume people things about people based on a couple of lines on a post without first reading or understanding what you're talking about. You prove that people need to stop read and digest other's opinions. If only to be able to explain why they are wrong.

No one person gets to decide what is acceptable thinking, no one person gets to "set the agenda" what does that even mean? KH, and the like don't have any more access to Twitter than you do. Set your own fucking agenda. If you decide to be a racist because Hopkins told you to, well that's on you really isn't it.

Free speech has been curbed at different times for the "right reasons" throughout history. Burn the books tell people what ideas are dangerous.

Racists won't go away because you tell them they can't have Twitter. They form their own alt-right twitter with other racists and no one to tell them they're wrong. No one to rebut their lies.

It tells me that you're tolerant of racism, whatever you profess to the contrary on here. You're happy for weak minded people to be infected by her rhetoric and embolden their racism. I don't care what colour you are, or the credentials you claim. I judge you on the action you are prepared to take to fight racism. No one is telling her she can't think these awful thoughts. Twitter is entitled to set its own agenda, much as MN is entitled to moderate its board. Racists might not go away, but it sends a big message when the message they've got lately is that it's acceptable to be racist because our government is and there are voices like Hopkins on social media and in the press who have got away with spouting this shit without being stopped for too long now.

This isn't about free speech.

I want to use an analogy here. We all have the right to take a shit.No one has the right to come in to my home and take a shit in my hallway. by refusing to let people do that I am not removing their right to take a shit. Hopkins and her ilk have been spreading hatred and sowing discord for so long now. It's like twitter have told her to stop shitting in their hallway. Good for them.

I get the freedom of speech argument, but I truly believe that KH is just a bloody troll who stirs up hatred where possible.

I applaud Twitter for throwing her back under the bridge where she belongs.

Nice try, but JK's opinion that women's rights matter is not unpopular

It's unpopular with a lot of people who believe TWAW and think it's based on transphobia. Just as Katie Hopkins opinions are popular with a lot of people who are right wing, don't underestimate how many there are who do you think voted for Trump and Brexit. I would say the number of people who agree with something doesn't necessarily make it true or ethically correct.
JKR herself said that as a much banned author she wants to stand up for free speech.

@022828MAN

I don't agree with her views but I also don't agree with the banning/cancelling/silencing of people either so can't get on board with this.

Whatever happened to freedom of speech?

Tech giants are now silencing anyone they don't agree with.

@annabel85 She hasn't been silenced. Perhaps you'd invite her to read out a selection of her tweets in your living room. Or maybe she can curate your employer's website and be free to share her views there.

Big problem when Tech Giants become our moral judge.

People have already cited the way TRAs have free rein to issue threats of violence and sexual assault on women.

And the sickening platform for paedophiles, self id as ‘MAP’.

Twitter is a nasty contamination, with it without the loathsome Hopkins.

I'm fairly broadminded but I had to block her to stop retweets from others as I found her views breathtakingly personal offensive and clearly intentionally goady. It's not even like she was highlighting a sensitive cause like Rotherham girls that people on left can find difficult to talk about. She was spiteful and inciteful.

Yeah nazis were well known for their love free speech

If you disapprove of the no-platforming of those you agree with, eg Germaine Greer, Peter Tatchell then you must also disapprove of the no-platforming of Katie Hopkins. Obviously, if she or anyone else breaks the laws on hate-speech, they should be prosecuted, but within the law free speech should be allowed.

Free speech only for those you agree with is no free speech at all.