Twitter has banned the Euro election campaign accounts of Ukip candidate Carl Benjamin and far-right extremist Tommy Robinson.
Ukip today refused to dump Benjamin after a video emerged of him using a variety of racial slurs.
Benjamin, a vlogger who calls himself “Sargon of Akkad”, had already been banned from Twitter in 2017 for violating the platform’s rules on targeted abuse.
And Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was permanently banned in March 2018 for violating its rules on “hateful conduct”.
Benjamin rose to notoriety after Tweeting a message to Labour MP Jess Philips, saying “I wouldn’t even rape you.”
(Image: Getty Images)
But a new account, which Benjamin claimed was not operated by him and was representing his campaign to be elected as an MEP, has now been suspended by the social network.
The account’s bio read: “Account not operated by Carl Benjamin”.
But many of the tweets were written in the first person, apparently by Mr Benjamin.
A Twitter spokesperson said: “The account has been suspended for breach of our Terms of Service”
(Image: Leon Neal)
In a tweet from the party’s official account, Ukip said: “Official UKIP MEP Campaign account @CarlUkip, of which Carl Benjamin has no access to has been suspended from Twitter
“This is election interference, and UKIP will get to the bottom of this.”
Ukip defended Benjamin earlier today, after a since-deleted 2015 video emerged showing him repeatedly used the words “n****r” and “spic”.
The vlogger also repeatedly described two people as a “fag” and a “retard” and used an apparently anti-Semitic meme in the clip.
And he said it was “just f***ing fine” to describe an Asian woman as a “chink”.
Anti-fascist group HOPE not Hate, which obtained the video, said the “appalling slurs” showed the “mask has slipped.”
And Labour MP David Lammy said: “This is an ideology of hate. It must be confronted and defeated.”
Yet today an apparently unrepentant Benjamin said people who had been offended “can go and have a cry.”
And Ukip defended Benjamin as a “YouTube entertainer” fighting “political correctness” – before telling the Mirror: “He will remain on the UKIP ticket.”
