An Ayrshire MP is one of the most targeted Scottish politicians when it comes to online abuse.
Kilmarnock and Loudoun’s SNP representative, Alan Brown MP, received 11 tweets identified as ‘toxic’ in a new report on online abuse of Westminster politicians.
Mr Brown was mentioned in 425 times on Twitter over a period of six weeks. A total of 11 were deemed to be ‘toxic’ in a survey put together by the BBC data journalism team.
A toxic tweet was defined as “rude, disrespectful or unreasonable comment that is likely to make someone leave a conversation”.
Mr Brown said: “Clearly 'toxic' tweets should be condemned.
“Abuse on social media can be horrific for some people and adversely affect their mental health.
“Firmer action is required on abusive tweets; false information as well as racism and misogyny.
“Worse, Elon Musk with his takeover of Twitter wants to encourage ‘free speech’. We already saw groups previously banned from Twitter re-joining such as the racist “Britain First”.
"On a personal basis I try to ignore abusive tweets and block or mute people as a see fit. In some cases reporting such tweets may be required.
Both Mr Brown and Central Ayrshire MP Dr Philippa Whitford were also mentioned in one ‘severely toxic’ tweet apiece.
Dr Whitford said: “While I certainly receive some rude responses on social media, I do not receive a great deal of personal abuse online but a number of my MP colleagues receive aggressive tweets on a regular basis and there’s no doubt it is a growing problem, both in terms of frequency and in viciousness.
“Freedom of speech is vital for a healthy democracy, as is being able to engage with your elected representatives, but being able to hide behind a keyboard and comment anonymously has seen us drift away from respectful debate and has led to a rise in abusive and aggressive comments.
“As politicians, it is incumbent on us to lead by example and I feel that too much of the rhetoric we hear, particularly at Westminster, gives encouragement to individuals, and the media, to be more vitriolic in their contributions.
“We must all do more to tone down our political debate and get back to respectful discussion, which is more likely to bring about a productive outcome.”
Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock’s SNP MP Allan Dorans said: “I do not use Twitter very often, and even then, only to highlight surgeries or positive events which I have taken part in or attended.
“All of my Tweets are therefore relatively uncontroversial and do not attract toxic or abusive comments.
“I cannot remember the specific toxic tweet, but as a policy I do not engage with any abusive tweets as, more often than not, the sender cannot be identified or is likely to be ‘Bot’.”
The assessment saw the BBC data journalism team analyse three million tweets which mentioned MPs over the course of six weeks.
More than 130,000 toxic tweets mentioned MPs with 20,000 deemed ‘severely toxic’.
Here are some of the statistics for local MPs.
- Allan Dorans MP Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock 1 ‘toxic’ tweet (0 severe) out of 92 mentions.
- Alan Brown MP Kilmarnock and Loudoun – 11 toxic tweets (1 severe) out of 436 mentions.
- Dr Philippa Whitford , Central Ayrshire 11 toxic tweets (1 severe) out of 705 mentions.
