A new pro-independence political party started by the founder of the Wings Over Scotland website has had its Twitter account immediately suspended over claims it was made for “abusive purposes”.
Stuart Campbell accused the social media giant of “directly interfering in national politics” after it took action against the @WingsPartyScot for breaching conditions on the management of multiple accounts.
READ MORE: Wings over Scotland blogger attacks SNP and Greens in Yes movement split
Campbell, 51, said the party would be supportive of most of the SNP’s policies, but with a renewed focus on independence after branding Nicola Sturgeon’s party a “shambles” in an interview with The Times last year.
The account had not yet posted any messages, however Twitter stated it had broken rules "against managing multiple Twitter accounts for abusive purposes".
Mr Campbell’s original Wings Over Scotland account, @WingsScotland, was slapped with a permanent ban from the website in December over ‘hateful conduct’.
He still Tweets regularly from his @RevStu account, confirming the ban last night.
Nope, banned straight away without doing anything. Appealed. Should be interesting.
— Rev. Stuart Campbell (@RevStu) March 2, 2020
Mr Campbell wrote: “As far as I can tell this does not breach any of Twitter's rules, as the party is a distinct entity from the political website. Nope, banned straight away without doing anything. Appealed. Should be interesting."
He later told The Herald’s sister paper The National the final decision on whether to proceed with the launch of the party would be made in April.
READ MORE: Wings Over Scotland permanently banned from Twitter for 'violations of Hateful Conduct Policy'
Mr Campbell added: “This wasn't an official launch of the party. But it raises the extremely concerning prospect of Twitter directly interfering in national politics by silencing a political party in an election, based on an already-unjustified sanction against the biggest Scottish politics website in the country, which Twitter still refuses to give an explanation for.
“The original Wings account has not breached any of Twitter's terms and conditions and nor did this one, but both have been banned for expressing views Twitter, or certain of its employees, appears to be opposed to."
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