 "Who is ‘Barry Stanton’, whose X account has been suspended for racist posts against Indians?")
Hate speech poisons our minds.
The outcome of one small misinformation could lead to protests, discrimination, and inequality, and even violence in extreme scenarios.
In the latest development, X has suspended the account of an anonymous social media user, Barry Shanton.
According to News18, this comes after hundreds of Indian users reported his account for his racist content against India.
Here’s all we know about him.
Account suspended
Barry Stanton’s X account was suspended as he frequently shared derogatory cartoons and posts depicting Indians in a negative light.
As per India Today, he once praised a post on how to drive Indian nationals away from “white neighbourhoods.”
His posts aren’t just limited to Indians but also include hateful and abusive posts against Jews and Africans.
“Why do black people think comedy is just loud people shouting?” one of his posts said.
Another of his posts, which was retweeted over 4,000 times, said, “Just picked my lad up from school. He tells me he was forced to read the korma in religion class.”
Outrage among Indians
Stanton’s account was reported to authorities by several Indian users, including Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, and the Indian High Commission in the United Kingdom.
“An email has been sent to Ashwini Vaishnaw, @MIB_India, to withhold the account of Barry Stanton In India and one copy also has been sent to the UK high commission in India,” Indian user Akshit Singh wrote on his X account.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts“This account has been engaging in the propagation of hate speech and offensive remarks that target individuals based on race and nationality,” he said in his complaint.
Kindly repost so that authorities can take immediate action:
— Akshit Singh 🇮🇳 (@IndianSinghh) August 29, 2024
An email has been sent to @AshwiniVaishnaw , @MIB_India to withhold the account of Barry Stanton In India and one copy also has been sent to the UK high commission in India.
Pehle isko legally pelenge usk baad iska… pic.twitter.com/qaCyjuBmOX
Other X users emphasised the necessity of looking into the account’s actions and described it as a venue for hate speech that targets people on the basis of their ethnicity and nationality.
Another user commented, “Musk has opened the gates of hell. It’s been proven, in fact, that the current Twitter algorithm is pushing racist tweets up against Indians.”
After Shanton’s account suspension was announced, the hashtag “suspended” was trending on X.
"Barry Stanton has added so much filth, that the entire internet has become filthy."
— Unum Cor (@mattyelle1) August 29, 2024
The man is sharing videos that Indians filmed themselves and posted online. Eating and rolling in shit, drinking cow piss...that's not filthy. But exposing it is filthy?! https://t.co/Asvfp0FBhB pic.twitter.com/41yix7liD3
About Barry Stanton
According to Barry Stanton’s bio on X, he is a British national and a father of five children.
Stanton boasted nearly two lakh followers on his verified X account.
Thousands of people have liked and retweeted offensive material that the X handle has been posting for several years.
According to a 2017 report by British news website The New Statesman, the pictures on Stanton’s account were stolen from another man, a pensioner from Worcestershire.
“Barry Stanton does not exist – or, not in the way Twitter users want to think he does. The account is a parody, created either by a liberal mocking the racists they detest or a real racist spreading their views via humour while hiding behind another person’s face,” the report said.
Storyful’s UK Editor Kevin Donnellan followed @BarryStanton64 in an attempt to find out who he was. He then located the original Facebook page where “Barry” posted his photos.
It is safe to conclude, then, that Barry Stanton is merely a fake identity that an anonymous troll uses to disseminate anti-Indian content.
Not the first time
Earlier this month, controversial British YouTuber Miles Routledge received massive criticism after he made racist remarks targeting India on X.
The dispute started when Routledge posted a screengrab of a threatening message sent by an unidentified X user. He accused the sender of being Indian even though there was no indication of the sender’s nationality, according to another report by India Today.
“Indian threatens to find me, it backfires lmao,” the YouTuber wrote, mocking the user’s message, which stated, “I will find you I promise, your apology video will be sweet.”
Routledge’s response, which included his address, followed by a mocking imitation of an Indian accent, “Saar okay lord saar good luck saar haha saar.”
The post quickly attracted criticism for its racist undertones.
In a separate post, he escalated the situation by making light of using nuclear weapons on India.
“When I become prime minister of England, I’ll open the nuclear silos… I’m itching to launch and atomize entire nations over the smallest infraction,” he wrote. “Hell, I might just launch at India just for the sake of it!"
The comments sparked immediate backlash.
With inputs from agencies
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