Naomi Long has received a groundswell of support in the wake of yet another series of vile attacks on social media.
But while welcoming a raft of positive replies backing her in the face of relentless online abuse, the Alliance leader has called on Twitter to “up their game” in terms of how they police the platform.
Mrs Long tweeted on Saturday that in the space of 72 hours she had been subjected to “squalid and misogynistic” messages. The tweet has been seen almost 900,000 times and replied to with messages of support from across the political spectrum.
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Kate Hoey replied: “Naomi. Sorry about these nasty tweets. I get them all the time and best thing just block and ignore. I have had some truly vile responses to some of my tweets or statements but by drawing attention to them you just please them.”
Naomi replied that “We may disagree politically, but no one should have to face this kind of abuse for expressing their views. It’s completely unacceptable. I’ll keep calling it out until social media platforms start to take it seriously.”
Simon Coveney told her: “Naomi, try to ignore the nasty comments. You are a progressive, positive force in NI politics and provide hope for many seeking compromise and tolerance. Stay strong, as you always do.”
Arlene Foster tweeted: “Sometimes I really despair. I send my solidarity to @naomi_long and ask those who send these messages to take a good look at yourselves especially if you have women who you love in your life - how would you feel if they received such messages??”
Mrs Long took to Twitter on Saturday to talk about the abuse she said she had experienced in the previous 72 hours, describing it as “genuinely appalling”.
And on Sunday, she told Mark Carruthers on the Sunday Politics programme: “I normally turn a blind eye to it, but this weekend I decided I was going to highlight it. I think the more we turn a blind eye to it and ignore it the more it becomes accepted as part of the discourse in politics and it shouldn’t be.”
The former Stormont justice minister said “this isn’t about free speech”, adding “nobody has a right to a platform” to abuse people. But she slated the social media giant’s response to her.
She said: “When Twitter sends you an email and says: ‘This doesn’t breach our community standards’, my question is: ‘What kind of community standards do you have if it doesn’t?’”
The Alliance leader said female politicians appear to be on the receiving end of the worst abuse.
They face “misogynistic, threatening and sexist abuse”, she said, adding that “no community should accept that as part of their standards and I think they really need to up their game”.
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