Twitter – In Mundo per oculos meos

Dogpile – The requirement is to join in with an angry group to yell at an easy target, or to get popularity points for being seen to agree with the group. They see that everyone else is doing something, and they copy it.

Dogpiling is a tactic often used on social media platforms, especially Twitter, it’s main purpose being to harass and intimidate somebody. Yesterday saw a prime example of dogpiling on Twitter after a user posted an opinion after watching It’s A Sin which is a series about the advent of AIDS in 1980s Britain. To most people the comment was merely an indication of the fact that an actress she did not like was in the series. We have all done this online or out in the world at one time or another, I know I did when I watched The Pianist for the first time ( it starred Maureen Lipman who I am not a fan of). Anyway what resulted was a very nasty example of dogpiling spearheaded by a British actor, who I wrote about in Anti-Semitism Campaign Continues Part Two, who happens to be a “friend” of the actress mentioned. He immediately used the fact that this actress who happens to be Jewish to accuse the Twitter user of antisemitism. His words were –

“#ItsASin must have cast of 50 actors , all giving brilliant performances, so tell me what is it about the Jewish actress and anti racism campaiger @TracyAnnO, that leaves a bad taste in your mouth?”

At no point in the comment made about the actress was the word Jewish used, so why would the actor friend immediately jump to the erroneous conclusion that what the Twitter user did not like about the actress was the fact she is Jewish, not that she is not a good actress. The term antisemitic is used all too easily and it has become one of the most commonly used insults on social media. The actress concerned has herself been a plaintiff in court cases in which she has claimed she has been libelled, so far one case was dropped by her and the other plaintiff, and the second case she pulled out of. I personally had never even heard of her until I started using Twitter as I do not watch soap operas and I understand she was/is acting in a popular soap opera.

There would seem to be a core 4 “celebrities” or “blue ticks” at the centre of current dogpiling/intimidation episodes. The actor that this piece is about, the actress and her daytime television presenter friend/co-plaintiff and the mediocre comedian who is past his hayday that I wrote about before. They agitate and encourage their “followers” to attack whoever happens to be their chosen target for that day. It rather reminds me of the playground cliques and bullies that we all dreaded coming across as children. If this kind of behaviour was not prone to becoming intimidating to the point where the target feels they have to leave Twitter (or other social media platform), it could be viewed as immature. I have seen the harassment get to the point where people lose jobs, their families are targeted, the police become involved and the person being targeted suffers mentally and emotionally. These “celebrities” (I hate that word) should be setting a good example not giving the message that it is okay to harass and intimidate others. Behind their keyboards they may feel they are brave and nobody can stand up to them … I wonder how it would be if they ever met their targets in the real world.

As usual this is all my opinion and it is all just my opinion this time. I watched in disgust yesterday as a poor lady was attacked from all sides purely for a comment she made, On the positive side there were many who defended her and stood with her so she was not alone.

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Gn asherjew and Fake Anti-Semitism Claims on Facebook

Gnasherjew, LAAS, Sussex Friends of Israel and their latest tool – “Labour Anti-Semitism Map

Why? (The colonisation of Palestine by Israel and the constant screams of ‘anti-semitism’)

Rachel Riley, Endemol Shine UK and that T-Shirt

Anti-Semitism Smear Campaign Continues Part One

Anti-Semitism from one of Labour’s Loudest Anti-Semitism Accusers

A Legacy Squandered

How Did Labour Come To This?

Chief Rabbi, Mainstream Media and the smears against Jeremy Corbyn (Guest post by Peter Gregson) Chairperson of LAZIR)

History Repeating Itself Trump and Fascism

Are they really this incompetent?

The Damage done by False AntiSemitism Claims and the Weaponisation of the Holocaust

Way Past Time to Hold China to Account

The Rise in Islamophobia

Anti-semitism campaign continues part two

Labour Is Now Officially The Puppet of the Israel Lobby

The Lies and Incompetence Continue

Smearmongers Attack Professor David Miller

You may be familiar with Gnasherjew, the group of ex-Labour Party members, who took it upon themselves to troll and harass left wing Labour party members and supporters on Twitter. They particularly targeted left wing Corbyn supporters, left wing Jews and those who dared criticise Israel on the social network platform. Everybody who dared criticise Israel was immediately labelled anti-Semitic by Gnasherjew who would start on a sustained programme of harassment and trolling, even going to the lengths of calling on the Labour party to expel these targeted Twitter users. Dorset Eye and The Canary both did articles on this harassment to bring people’s attention to what was going on. Twitter blocked the Canary’s article but the article on the Dorset Eye page was available to all.

Here is a quick bit of background information on Gnasherjew. Gnasherjew is the idea of notorious right wing, pro-Israel supporter John Arnott who pens a particularly poisonous blog called ‘Jew Knows’. Once people caught on to what he and his followers were up to there was a mass blocking of the members of Gnasherjew, and their followers, on Twitter so they found themselves with fewer targets to harass. They had a try at complaining to Twitter about being blocked by people they had had no interaction with, perhaps not realising that this is a democracy and people are entitled to block whoever they like. They then expanded their campaign to include Facebook.

Once on Facebook Arnott, or one of the other members of Gnasherjew, created a page ingeniously titled ‘Gnasherjew’ and started targeting people on Facebook. They have created a list of the top 50 ‘anti-Semitic’ Labour party members/supporters for everybody to see and post comments on. I found out about this because I was one of the targets. I had been targeted on Twitter but blocked them all and they somehow found me on Facebook and carried on. I reported the post to Facebook but they said it did not go against their standards, this was despite the fact that it was a cobbled together collage of things I supposedly posted on Twitter and Facebook which made me look racist and anti-Semitic … I am neither of these things and never have been. My only crime is I support Corbyn and I support Palestine against the Israeli occupation and illegal settlements.

The post was eventually taken down but only after a friend also reported it to Facebook. The list is comprised of Labour councillors, party members, party branch officials and even Ali Milani who is the Labour candidate fighting for Boris Johnson’s seat in the General Election. Go and take a look at their page, see if you are on there and make a complaint. The group of people that seem to have received the worst trolling are Jewish people who are pro-Corbyn, or criticise Israel. I would call the treatment they receive, at the hands of these reprobates who claim to be fighting anti-Semitism, at the very least anti-Semitic. If this was a group of pro-Palestine supporters doing this, then neither Facebook or Twitter would have a problem banning them from their platforms, but in this case it seems to be a case of one rule for them and another for everybody else. Whilst this bias continues, people like Arnott and the rest of Gnasherjew will think they have the right to continue posting libellous posts which could seriously damage reputations and maybe even cause people to lose jobs, friendships and more. The only way to stop this is for all of us who have been targeted by this group of people and others like them to stand up and say enough is enough. They do not have the right to spread lies and misinformation about us or anybody else. They go out of their way to make people’s lives miserable, on Twitter they use what is called ‘dog piling’ which means that they all attack a target at the same time. This is targeted harassment and they get away with it time after time because of who they are and who they support.

I am not a victim of Gnasherjew I am a person they chose to libel and spread misinformation about. They tried to get me expelled from the Labour Party. They tried to make me miserable and to make people dislike me. It did not work. But it will have worked on others. Do not let them make it work on you or your friends. Stand up to them and stand up to Twitter and Facebook and demand equal treatment for all. It is bad enough seeing the social media bias with regards to Israel and Palestine; and the mainstream media bias with regards to Tories and Labour. We have to make sure that the bias is not allowed to influence how some social media users are censured and others not.

I originally wrote this on August 1st 2019 and have since updated it due to the General Election. Thanks to Sally Eason and Labour Left Voice for the information about John Arnott.