The influential pro-Scottish independence blogger Wings Over Scotland has been suspended by Twitter amid claims he orchestrated a “hate mob” against a journalist.
Stuart Campbell, who runs the site, confirmed that social media giant Twitter had suspended his account but had yet to offer an explanation for the move.
In a post written on the Wings Over Scotland blog, Campbell said: “We’ve had no email from Twitter offering any sort of explanation, but it seems most likely to have been at the behest of a Daily Express hack called Siobhan McFadyen who’s been huffily bleating to the company’s executives over the weekend.”
Campbell, who has amassed around 50,000 Twitter followers, had earlier commented on a Daily Express article written by McFadyen in which the London-based journalist suggested First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was “teeing up the population for more outbreaks of violence and misery” as she launched a fresh drive for Scottish independence.
Campbell posted a lengthy rebuttal to the article on his Wings site yesterday and later took to Twitter to call out McFadyen directly, saying “What an utter disgrace @siobhanyc [McFadyen] is.
Social media users, a number of whom appeared to be Wings followers, then began sending tweets to the journalist.
@neilburgh@WingsScotland I am reporting both these accounts to police. And I mean it this time.
— Siobhan McFadyen (@siobhanyc) September 10, 2016
McFadyen said on Twitter that she had received over 600 messages from supporters of Campbell, including insults and alleged death threats that she had reported to the police.
She also stated that she had received abusive messages from independence supporters during the referendum campaign in 2014.
Campbell, who is based in Bath, has previously attracted controversy for his interactions on social media after he labelled a Conservative MSP a “fat, troughing scum” and blasted Liverpool fans for their actions during the Hillsborough disaster.
A spokesperson for Twitter said: “We don’t comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons.”