Twitter suspends account briefly after U.K. pol attacks gay couple
The account temporarily went dark after a right-wing political figure tweeted the home address of a gay couple who won a court case against B&B owners who refused the men a room.
A right-wing political figure in Great Britain has stirred up trouble for tweeting the address of a gay couple denied a single room in a bed and breakfast.
The Twitter account belongs to the controversial Nick Griffin, Chairman for the British National Party Chairman and Member of the European Parliament for the North West region. Griffin and other members of the extreme right-wing British National Party have ruffled feathers in the past with their open hostility toward gays, Muslims, and immigrants.
This time around, Griffin expressed his outrage over a case in which two men requested a single room with a double bed in a B&B. The owner refused to give them such a room, citing her Christian beliefs against offering double beds to unmarried couples, reported the New York Times.
Taking the case to court, the two men were awarded damages of $2,300 each after the judge ruled that the B&B owners "treated them less favorably than she would treat unmarried heterosexual couples in the same circumstances."
The whole situation riled up Griffin, who posted a tweet asking for the address of the "2 bullying 'gay' activists who've won case v Christian B&B owners." Apparently, that triggered a response from someone who knew the address because Griffin tweeted it, the Times wrote.
That action led to the suspension of Griffin's Twitter account, but only for a short time. His account is since back up, but the tweet revealing the couple's address is gone.
Other comments tweeted by Griffin included "bit of drama by way of reminding you that an English couple's home is their castle. Say No to heterophobia!" and "Why don't left & gay activists confront Muslims instead of picking on meek & forgiving Christians? Bullies are always cowards!"
This is the second instance this week in which Twitter pulled someone's account for objectionable comments. The microblogging site turned off access in Germany to the account of a reported neo-Nazi group over pro-Nazi comments. Expressing a Nazi viewpoint is considered illegal in Germany.