Respected British sitcom writer, Graham Linehan, has been permanently banned from Twitter after making a string of allegedly ‘transphobic’ Tweets.
Last week, the creator of famed television shows Father Ted and The IT Crowd briefly lost his blue verification tick after he accused an LGBT group of “grooming.” On the heels of that, a Twitter spokesperson said that Mr Linehan’s tick had been removed by mistake, and it was later restored.
However, Mr Linehan’s @Glinner profile has now been suspended completely. A Twitter spokesperson has been widely quoted as saying that, “the account has been permanently suspended after repeated violations of our rules against hateful conduct and platform manipulation.”
Twitter defines platform manipulation as, “using Twitter to engage in bulk, aggressive, or deceptive activity that misleads others and/or disrupts their experience.”
Twitter’s censorship of Mr Linehan comes after he reportedly Tweeted, “men aren’t women tho,” in reply to a post by a feminist institute that wished a happy Pride to all of its transgender followers.
Following his suspension, Mr Linehan went on to a “feminist thread” on Mumsnet - a parenting website - to complain about his ban.
In an alleged post by the 52-year-old, he wrote, “I’m really sorry to barge in on you Mumsnetters with my problems, but I’ve finally been suspended from Twitter and I have a feeling they’re either going to ban me or just take my verified tick. I’ve submitted an appeal with Twitter and the Better Business Bureau but thought I’d post here too so people knew what was going on.”
"Recently, I keep being locked out of my account and forced to delete tweets to get back in. The latest tactic by trans rights activists is to run a search for any time I've used the word ‘groomer,’ a phrase Twitter recently decided was Not Allowed.”
“This was not a violation of Twitter's ToS [terms of service] at the time I used the phrase, and I have been careful to avoid it since. I still use the word 'grooming' in various permutations because I believe that gender ideology is a form of societal grooming. It is a very real threat to the wellbeing of women and children and if our ability to name a threat is removed, it is even more difficult to fight that threat."
Mr Linehan then goes on to say that, “Twitter has a high percentage of trans-identified employees and for some time has been silencing feminists and their allies who run afoul of its absurd 'misgendering' policies. The one good thing about my situation is that I'm in great company - Claire Graham, Meghan Murphy, Skylar Gwynn, Miranda Yardley, GNC Centric and many more, important feminist and critical voices who have been silenced for fighting a dangerous ideology that tells children it's possible to be born into the wrong body.”
Mr Linehan’s comments in the Twittersphere have aroused controversy over the years, particularly on issues of transgender rights.
Back in 2018, Mr Linehan was issued a warning by British police after he refused to call a transgender activist by her newly assigned gender, and instead referred to her as “he” - an act known as ‘deadnaming’ among the transgender community.
He previously Tweeted that, “people who parrot meaningless meme-speak like ‘Trans rights are human rights (who says they aren’t? No-one) while ignoring the abuse received by women who speak out against gender ideology… you have no use. You are literally useless.”
Mr Linehan was also slammed for comments during an appearance on BBC Newsnight in which he compared doctors treating transgender children to Nazis experimenting in concentration camps.
“There are a couple of parallels, one is at the moment children are being experimented on with puberty blockers,” Mr Linehan said.
“All I’m saying is that this needs to be understood, this needs to be talked about, and extremists need to be expelled from this conversation. And by extremists, I mean anyone who tells you you can’t have a conversation,” he added.
Mr Linehan's suspension has provoked a flurry of debate among Netizens.