Category Archives: Twitter

Mo Ansar Calls Me A ‘Paranoid Racist’

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Image taken from BBC Documentary: 'When Tommy Met Mo'.

Image taken from BBC Documentary: ‘When Tommy Met Mo’.

Like reputable media outlets and the general public, I was happy to forget all about Mo Ansar. A malicious fraud who was exposed in grand fashion last May when several mainstream media outlets reported on his fairytale C.V and Islamist sensibilities. Journalist Jeremy Duns appears to have collated the most comprehensive account of Ansar’s lies and malice. I encourage you to share it far and wide.

During this time, I tweeted out an offer for Mo Ansar to clear his name on my podcast, perhaps even a discussion with Jeremy Duns on these allegations.

PodcastOfferAnsarHateMo then accused me of a campaign of ‘hate and harassment’ (a tweet he subsequently deleted when pressed for examples) and decided he would just ignore the charges against him, presumably in the hope they would go away. Well, they won’t. He’s still yet to publish a response to these serious, career ending allegations over a year later. Read more

Clarifying A News Article Mentioning Me

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IndyImageI recently gave a brief interview to The Independent on the topic of my Twitter suspension and free speech.  I’m as surprised as you are.

This is the first of, the admittedly few, media requests I’ve accepted.  I’ve no desire for the attention and I’m always mindful of the intentions of those wishing to speak to me.

After a brief email back and forth with the friendly journalist at The Independent, it became apparent that they were genuinely interested in reporting on the topics at hand, rather than sensationalism – so I decided it was worthwhile to have a discussion. I’m pleasantly surprised and pleased with being accurately quoted and having the larger issues highlighted in the piece.  Seems my cynicism towards journalism was misplaced on this occasion.

This has led to a follow-up opinion piece in The Telegraph, which is perfectly fine and well, but given I’ve had accusations of ‘targeting’ before, I feel compelled to address a misconception in the article (emphasis Mine):

I also knew I didn’t want to get into quick-fire religious debate, the kind that was exemplified in yesterday’s news story about an atheist tweeter called the ‘Godless Spellchecker’, who had been temporarily suspended from the site for apparently abusing the (mainly Muslim) religious tweeters he disagreed with – a story which ended up seeming all the more poignant as the horrific, incomprehensive events in Paris unfolded.

I’m grateful that the article also reiterates that I am in fact innocent of any abuse on Twitter, but the above paragraph appears to suggest my account mostly targets (or abuses) actual Muslims. This is objectively false.  Yes, it is true that I’m especially critical of Islamism over other ideologies – and my criticism of it is considerably more frequent.

I see nothing sinister in giving special attention to the current most dangerous strain of Abrahamic Faith.  Perhaps I’ve misread and the article is actually saying it was predominantly Muslims who complained about my account.  Still, there is no way to confirm if this is actually true.

However, for the sake of clarification on my part; interactions with actual Muslims are particularly rare.  In fact, the majority of my interactions are of the Christian Zealot flavour.  I’d say the overwhelming amount of misspelled anti-atheist sentiment I respond to on Twitter comes via a Christian denomination.  Who knows what I’d discover were I to learn Arabic though.

When I interact with Christians I’m often told I ‘wouldn’t dare criticise Islam in the same way’, and when I criticise Islam, I’m informed of my potent ‘Islamophobia’.  The game is rigged, but I enjoy playing anyway.

You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.

 

Twitter reinstates my account: A huge thank you

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TwitterEmail

 

I recently blogged an open letter to Twitter after they informed me that my Twitter account @GSpellchecker would be ‘permanently suspended’.  This produced a flurry of interest and support on a scale far greater than I had anticipated nor experienced for anything else I’ve been involved with before. It seems my fellow Twitter compadres have a potent dislike for injustice.

Well, today my Twitter account was reinstated in record time and I received an apology email from Twitter.  Hurrah!

Although the email (pictured above) is generic and unrevealing, it is the desired and correct decision from Twitter.  Below is my brief reply to it:

Hi,

Thank you for your prompt and positive response.

I would please urge you to review and investigate the individual, or individuals responsible for these bogus reports – and review any other suspensions they’ve caused as I’m aware I’m not their only victim.

Thanks again,

It does appear to confirm my suspicions however – individuals (or an individual) are making bogus reports of ‘abuse or harassment’ to silence criticism, or people they simply do not like.  This is clear given the ‘review’ carried out by Twitter deemed the initial reports against me were not substantive enough to warrant the suspension or banning.

It’s amusing to note just how much this attempt to shut me down has backfired; indeed as a result, my blog visits have hit record numbers and downloads of my podcast have spiked.  Not to mention my Twitter ‘followers’ have now crossed a 50,000 milestone.  I’ve also had media enquiries and received my first new Patreon supporter in weeks.  So, I suppose this is a thank you to those responsible for my suspension too.

As before, I will continue to use my voice to critique bad ideas and their ideologues, with civility – but without abuse or dilution.

I will always oppose abuse and harassment in all its forms, but it’s equally important that those who wish to stifle legitimate criticism, satire and dissent via disingenuous tactics be exposed and held to account for their behaviour also.  I hope Twitter takes a good look at the responsible parties in this instance and revokes the privileges that allow them to influence automatic suspensions and bans.

I want to say a HUGE thank you to those of you who’ve shared my open letter, contacted Twitter on my behalf and sent messages of support my way.  For the first time since joining Twitter I’ve actually been unable to cope with the sheer volume of tweets coming my way, so I apologise if I’ve not replied to your well-wishes, but please know it’s appreciated and has not gone unnoticed.  It’s overwhelming, thank you.

You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.

Permanent Suspension: An Open letter to Twitter #09914411

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Image Source: http://fnrrfygmschnish.deviantart.com/art/Stop-Sign-Graveyard-2-333610090

Image Source: http://fnrrfygmschnish.deviantart.com/art/Stop-Sign-Graveyard-2-333610090

Update 06/12/2015- My main account has been fully restored. A HUGE thank you to everyone who shared this page and asked questions on my behalf. It means a lot. Reason has prevailed!

After several suspensions, Twitter has decided to ban me permanently.  The reasons given are usually violations of their terms and services related to ‘Targeted abuse or harassment’.  Even though I ask, I’ve never received a single example of my engagement in this behaviour.  I don’t believe the big wigs at Twitter are being anti-atheist, or anti free-speech, or any other such silly victim nonsense, but rather a flawed and automated reporting system is being abused to silence criticism.  My lofty goal with the below open letter is to prompt an actual human being at Twitter to review my case and provide me with some feedback as to what exactly I tweeted that was deserving of permanent suspension from Twitter.  Please share this post and amplify it to Twitter execs, @Support and those with influence in the ‘atheist community’ etc:

Case Id #09914411

Dear Twitter,

I joined your micro blogging service back in 2012, when ‘join the conversation’ was the mantra. And join it I did, and I fell in love with you immediately. I created the account @Gspellchecker when I noticed a steady stream of badly spelled anti-atheist bigotry and hate working through the Twitter servers. I decided before I’d even sent my very first tweet that I’d never use a single expletive, engage in any abuse, nor reward or encourage any such behaviour from those kind enough to follow me. I kept to that set of ethics right up until my permanent suspension in Jan 2015 where I was forced to bow out to a total of 49,600 followers.

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Mo Ansar accuses me of ‘Hate and Harassment’.

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Image taken from BBC Documentary: 'When Tommy Met Mo'.

Image taken from BBC Documentary: ‘When Tommy Met Mo’.

Update – 04/01/2015 – Nearly four months after falsely accusing me of a ‘campaign of hate and harassment’ on Twitter, Mo has decided to delete the tweet in question (screenshot below).  He did so after I drew further attention to it in this blog post and suggested these allegations may be grounds for reporting him to Twitter’s support.  Is this deletion an admission of false allegations?  And if so, did they lead to false reports which have contributed to my twitter account being permanently suspended? Please read the full blog entry for background and the ethical dilemma this presents for Ansar on the serious topics of ‘Hate and harassment’.

I’ve made no secret of my fascination with the now declining media presence of Mo Ansar (may it rest in peace), and I’ve weighed in on the many instances of his questionable character right here on this very blog.

I also frequently challenge his authoritarian, yet nonsensical Twitter ramblings, but as anyone who follows my twitter account will know: this will never take the form of abuse, hate, threats or expletives1. I don’t think I deserve any credit for behaving like a decent human being, but I’d like you to keep it in mind given the seriousness of the below accusations levelled at me by Ansar.

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  1. I used to have some fun playing a harmless game I named ‘#GSGametime’ with my followers. The game involved encouraging followers to ask someone a nonsensical (yet polite) question and wait to see what their responses would be. For example, we once asked Deepak Chopra the question: ‘Why are you leaving?’ Which lead to this response. We also asked Joel Osteen whether they ‘were still auctioning their shoes‘. We also once asked Mo Ansar: ‘Why do you think Cats are Haram?’ This practical joking was for the purpose of inspiring confused and therefore amusing responses. Unfortunately, Ansar didn’t bite. Yes, this game is callow and I’ve not played it since Nov 2013; but it’s certainly not harassment or hate ↩

Is CJ Werleman A Plagiarist?

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Image Taken From https://www.facebook.com/pages/CJ-Werleman/207324500344

Image Taken From https://www.facebook.com/pages/CJ-Werleman/207324500344

Update: 22/10/2014 – Soon after publishing this article on 17/10/2014, the charges of plagiarism contained within were confirmed to be accurate, revealing CJ Werleman to be a serial plagiarist. As a result, many new developments have occurred – including the discovery of 14 additional instances of plagiarism and a number of Werleman’s publishing outlets taking action against him. I have now added additional footnotes to highlight these developments.

I recently documented a number of concerns regarding the unpleasant behaviour of ‘Author’ and ‘Social Commentator’ CJ Werleman in my article: ‘CJ Werleman: Misrepresentation, Dubious Ethics and Unoriginal Hackery’. Expressed within that article and reproduced below are my thoughts on some of Werleman’s published writing:

‘[Werleman] is simply regurgitating past hack jobs and slapping sensationalist headlines on them’

‘…you’ve already heard this elsewhere, many times before, many years ago.’

‘Also, what he has cobbled together in his attack on Harris has already been written by others many years ago’

I attributed his imitative output to an absence of original thought rather than something altogether more cynical. But it’s now possible my feeling of ‘having read this all before’ was a symptom of literally having read some of this before.

The above article mentions Dr. Peter Boghossian (@PeterBoghossian), which subsequently prompted a conversation between us. During our conversation, Dr. Boghossian called attention to some things he’d identified in CJ Werleman’s writing that I hadn’t previously considered, and so I decided to conduct an independent investigation to determine whether or not CJ Werleman is guilty of actual plagiarism. (Parts of Dr. Boghossian’s letter have been reprinted here with his permission.)

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