Twitter BANS Yellow Vest Leader

It’s not going at all well for James Goddard, the self-styled leader of the comedy amateur Sturmabteilung that has tried to appropriate the Gilets Jaunes movement started in France. The group’s protests have become incoherent and needlessly violent, popular support has been non-existent, and he’s been banned from central London as part of his bail conditions. It’s almost as if he wasn’t on to a winner at all.

But Goddard still had Twitter, even if he couldn’t come to Westminster and hurl abuse at Anna Soubry. Well, until last night he did. And then he didn’t: in its wisdom, the social media platform has decided it can get along quite well without him. His use of the platform to peddle hate speech has come to its inevitable conclusion.

One Tweeter observed “He's gone. Twitter having one of its monthly purges it seems... Sargon has been culled also”. Well, Carl Benjamin, who styles himself Sargon of Akkad, had already been banned by Twitter but thought he could be dead clever and come back as Not Sargon. Soon after he showed the world how clever he wasn’t, Twitter made the glaringly obvious connection and he, too, was gone.

A Tweeter called Patriotic UK (yeah, right) was one of the first to notice that there was less incoherent ranting than usual: “I've just noticed that fellow patriot James Goddard, @JGoddard230616 has had his account suspended this evening, presumably for committing the crime of owning another whiny terrorist sympathiser. Hopefully he will create a new one, which I will gladly publicise”. Don’t think you will.

Yesterday’s Yellow Vest protest in London showed exactly who the terrorists are, and it wasn’t their opponents. Also, the real patriots are the ones fighting against the hatred and intolerance perpetrated by the likes of Goddard. But none of this occurred to Harry Smith, who whined “Twitter really are anti free speech. The left meanwhile can do and say as they like”. Perhaps “the left”, as he calls them, don’t keep abusing the Ts and Cs.

That didn’t occur to one of the Manchester Yellow Vest community, who was also in full mardy strop mode at the news. “Yet the left are allowed to doxx and harass people?” Well, if they actually do doxx and harass people, they’ll get kicked off Twitter as well. But if it’s just a figment of the batshit far right’s imagination, they won’t.

Besides, James Goddard should have been happy at the news, given what he said about Twitter around a year ago. Back then, when he had the handle @Brexiteer1989, he was - surprise, surprise - handed a suspension. His response? “First I got a 12 hour ban, then they increased it, by another 12 hours … I didn’t threaten or incite violence … I’d rather convert to Islam, than use Twitter again”. So spoke the great Abu Goddard.

He didn’t want to use Twitter again - now he’s been kicked off (again), he doesn’t have to. James Goddard gets his wish, and those who wished it had happened rather earlier get a little peace and quiet. If only there could be more news like that.

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