An article published today by Reaction criticising the SNP and the Scottish Nationalist movement for its response to the homophobic mockery of Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson has been flagged as “harmful” on Twitter, due to multiple reports that it violated the social media site’s terms of service.
On Sunday, a Nationalist “comedian” at the Scottish Independence Convention had called Davidson “Dykey D” in a mock rap. The song was described by an SNP MP as being “hilarious”. Iain Martin, editor of Reaction, questioned whether senior Nationalists would have been quite so amused if the unfunny routine had been perpetrated by a Scottish Tory describing a senior Nationalist in similar terms.
The flagging of the article as harmful on Twitter is bizarre. The piece makes entirely legitimate points. It would be ironic in the extreme if journalism questioning the attitude of some Nationalists to self-criticism was the target of a coordinated attempt by Nationalist supporters to remove content which criticises the SNP.
The Reaction team has followed up the case with Twitter, and hopefully the article will be off the Twitter blacklist shortly.
