| Glenn. |
25-07-2025 11:35 PM |
The Bristol Post Names and Shames Homophobes
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/n...wx99lt073hms0i
Quote:
Enough is enough - we won't stand for having our posts hijacked by homophobes and racists
Today we take the unusual step of naming and shaming some of the worst offenders - WARNING - article contains offensive language.
Two minutes had passed since we'd hit the publish button on our photographer's brilliant photos of Bristol's Pride parade - a selection of joyful, colourful snaps showing the parade filling a city centre street. Two minutes, three comments on the Facebook post, one editor with a sinking feeling as more began to flood in.
It should have been a shared celebration of our city's vibrant LGBTQ+ community - we are proud to live in a city as diverse as Bristol and our Pride celebrations are the biggest in the South West.
Instead, the comments exemplified exactly why Pride is still necessary, perhaps now more than ever. The shameless discrimination was nothing short of shocking, and it's time we called out those who think we will tolerate this abuse on our platform.
After about an hour of refreshing, scrolling, deleting and banning in an attempt to fire-fight the homophobia and transphobia spewing from the post, we reluctantly turned off comments. If this seems like an overreaction, one person went as far as to call it a good location for a bomb to be dropped.
Below is just a selection, some of which we have been forced to censor due to their horrific nature. We have chosen to highlight these not to amplify their message, but to act as a deterrent to anyone else who thinks they can post harmful comments on our page without consequence.
Bobby Shaw, whose Facebook profile lists him as living in Bristol, said: "Needs a big lorry to run the ********** down the gay XXX XXXXX"
Shahid Shashik, whose profile says he lives in Kent, said: "Sick animals ( sorry even animals don't do this)" .
Mark Stewart, whose profile says he lives in Gloucester added: "Disgusting crearures." (presumably a mispelling of 'creatures'.
Matthew Adams, whose profile says he lives in Bath, said: "Normalising abnormalities'
Christopher Fisher, whose profile says he lives in Melksham, said: "Just a load of clueless clowns with mental issues'
Dom Anton, whose profile does not list a location, said: "Imagine being proud of paedophilia and self mutilation."
And Jamie Tierney, whose profile does not list a location, added: "Isn't the whole damn month of June enough for these attention seeking freaks."
These are just a handful of the dozens of appalling abusive comments we hid from public view. Another went to the trouble of finding someone who had commented support for the parade, clicking on their profile, downloading their profile picture of a same-sex couple and posting it in the comments telling people to 'keep kids away from these'.
A further issue is the more engagement a post gets, the more people it is served to meaning this filth - unfairly associated with Bristol Live - was being spread wider and wider.
But enough is enough. We will not shy away from calling this out and calling it what it is.
Although these were in the extreme, it's a depressing reality that certain stories attract nasty comments online. A second example in recent days was an article on a councillor sharing his concerns about immigration raids in Bristol.
Within minutes again, it was awash with racist comments, all with people's names and pictures clear to see. No shame.
Of course people have a right to free speech - we do after all live in a free country. But if they use that right to make appalling discriminatory comments, they should not be surprised when they are publicly called out on them.
It's also our right to block users who go against the rules of Bristol Live.
In a pre-digital age, someone who disagreed with an article would have to ring up the newsroom to have their rant or post a letter to the editor. Now, it just takes the tap of a keyboard and people seem to forget that often their picture appears right next to this comment. And, of course, the internet is for ever.
Sometimes we switch comments off immediately to rule out the risk of people using our platform to spread their hatred. We don't want to do so routinely, as we want to give people the chance to have a constructive debate or tag their friends to signpost something they might want to read.
And we can and do monitor comments on our website but the battle to keep discrimination out of a social media discussion, especially on a post that's being widely shared, is a near-impossible challenge.
While it's admittedly incredibly difficult to police once a post goes viral, we have 'named and shamed' trolls in the past and we will not hesitate to do the same again. Too often we see racism, sexism and homophobia being boldly bandied beneath our stories.
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