Owen Jones sent revolting homophobic abuse

[tabbycatstripy]

Owen Jones has posted some terrible homophobic abuse he received on Twitter. It’s ugly stuff. Apparently he knows who sent it (the person made no effort to hide her identity) so I hope he has informed the police.

He’s blaming it on GC ‘anti-trans’ ‘radicalisation’ anyway.

Maybe we could all list below how many times we’ve sent people abusive, threatening messages online (of any sort)?

I’ll start: 0

I think he's an odious male supremacist and his use of the word radicalised to describe consciousness raising in a group of people who are oppressed is the sort of thing someone who does not wish to recognise their privilege might say as a way to protect that privilege. That said, the tweet does say he is trying to encroach on women's spaces so I can see why he's made a GC link.

Homophobia is never OK. It's not OK to say this to Owen. It's not OK when Stonewall does it either.

Good point, well made.

That said, the tweet does say he is trying to encroach on women's spaces so I can see why he's made a GC link.

I think quite a lot of trolls are dropping this in now, they know its a hot topic of division and will draw more attention to their trolling (and boy has that tactic worked a treat in this case!). A bit like when Putin mentioned JKR in that speech he did a few months ago.

Most of that horrible abusive message Owen was subjected to was nothing to do with women's spaces, it was just plopped in at the end.

Hi Mumsnet, can you let me know what I put in that comment that got it deleted? I've read the talk guidelines and can't find where I transgressed. Thanks.

Those messages are disgusting and cannot be excused. I believe this user's account must have been hacked. I really hope there is a way of tracking down the culprit behind it.

Me too. It's the only way to clear her name to his followers' satisfaction.

Oh, I do hope he reports it. I mean he wouldn't have sent it, or arranged with someone to send it to himself. Therefore, the thing to do is report it to the police and sort it out.

Yes, and how does he know it was posted by a woman, not a man pretending to be a woman?

The messages to him, India Willoughby and Angela Rayner are horrible and shouldn’t have been sent.

They are similar to the sort of messages I’ve seen numerous trans activists tweet at women - which doesn’t excuse them obviously.

I hope they've all reported to the police.

He does know, however that a lot of GC women are same sex attracted and that's partly WHY they're GC, right?

Being GC I would say on balance makes you less likely to be homophobic. Part of what we're against is transing away the gay.

Didn't some of the whistleblowers from the Tavi express concerns that some parents were homophobic and this was behind their desire for their child to transition?

Seems that lots of people reported her to her workplace (she had it stated in her twitter bio). The workplace was tweeting last night that it had launched an investigation into the issue.

Her account is now protected which seems a bit strange if she was just hacked.

Hopefully it will be fully investigated. It wasn't just Owen who was abused by that account but also Ian Wright, India Willoughby and Angela Rayner.

As others have already said many GC women are gay and those who aren't fully understand the shit that's happening to gay women at the moment.
I've not been on Twitter since not long after Graham was "Offed" so I don't know which account these tweets came from.
I hope the police fully investigate.
Then if they have time maybe look into the rape threats/fantasies about killing gc women, threats of violence etc that's been common on Twitter for years.
Only when they get a chance though obviously.
We're no bother.

Urghh *I haven't been on Twitter

I will be exceedingly surprised if hacking is not involved given the name wasn't hidden. Odd coinkydink that this seems to have happened on the heels to Maher's stellar GC rant that is getting lots of attention. Just sayin.

@DontLikeCrumpets
Narcissists will quite often create drama when they see someone else getting attention.
No idea why I said that out loud as it has nothing at all to do with this thread at all....

Her account is now protected which seems a bit strange if she was just hacked.

Her account was locked shortly after her employer said they were going to investigate. This fits in to her being hacked as they probably contacted her (the woman may have been going about her Sunday completely oblivious to what was unfolding on Twitter) and then she was able to log back in, or get Twitter to do it, and lock her account.

If it were really her, and she had really tweeted that shit under her own name and employer, she probably would have locked her account as soon as OJ and IW actually noticed and drew attention to what she was posting.

Who knows really. But OJ and IW should have at least checked before going in so hard as it did look dodgy. I get that if they are sent such horrible abuse they might go in all guns blazing and want immediate revenge and mightnot think things through, but it's now possible that a young woman has unnecessarily been targeted.

I would happily and truthfully call Owen Jones a raging misogynist and an online bully, because his own words over the past few years have repeatedly revealed that to be the truth and I could point to many tweets that provide evidence.

I would never stoop to using homophobic slurs or abuse toward Owen Jones because that is completely out of order and vastly unpleasant. And I absolutely agree he is right to flag that it has happened, just as women are right to flag the hateful misogynistic slurs and threats they receive depressingly frequently.

If this account has been hacked, as looks likely, I hope the police can find who is behind it and punish them appropriately, and I hope Jones isn’t too upset by it.

How does one access the ‘radicalisation’ areas of MN? Is there a minimum post count? Special handshake? Or do I need a Twitter account? Because at that I draw the line 😕

I agree that he was right to flag what happened, but why didn't he just report it to her employer/the police himself?

I'm not entirely sure if he meant to out this person to his 1 million followers or not. Giving him the benefit of tbe doubt, it's possible that he was so keen to make the point about normal people being radicalised by Mumsnet/JKR etc that he posted the Aldi/Captain Tom info without thinking it through. And without thinking that it looked highly likely this young woman's account had been hacked.

At the other end, it's possible he knew perfectly well what he was doing, deliberately posted enough info that he knew everyone would easily find her without him being the one who actually posted her account, and noticed that she hadn't posted in months and it seemed a bit strange but for whatever reason just didn't care if she had been hacked.

Errr no. The man's an arse and a stirrer but he doesn't dish out abuse like this and he doesn't deserve to receive it. Nobody does.

I've just read it on his Facebook page. It's weird that he's decided that homophobic abuse is a result of the 'anti trans movement'.

And yes, he's inviting his followers to whip up a witch hunt.

In any event this is either a troll or a hack. Women don't speak like that.

Certainly not British women. The language used to him and the other people targeted is American English.

What was the abuse to Willoughby and Rayner?

I'm not entirely sure if he meant to out this person to his 1 million followers or not.

Are you kidding. He revels in getting women dogpiled on, using his followers. Last week he was trying to do it to a teenage schoolgirl.