Far-right figure Tommy Robinson says he will take Twitter to court, accusing the social media giant of treating ‘facts as hate’ and of pushing the government’s agenda.
The former leader and co-founder of the English Defence League (EDL) made the statement during Sunday’s ‘Day For Freedom’ rally in London.
The event was organised under the banner of ‘free speech’ after Robinson was permanently banned from Twitter in March for ‘hateful conduct.’ Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, had over 400,000 followers at the time of his suspension.
“What I’m going to do, is I’m going to take Twitter to court,” he declared on Sunday. “I won’t get my Twitter account back, but what we’ll be able to prove –which needs proving– is that ‘facts’ are now seen as ‘hate’, and the government is pushing it’s agenda with private companies.”
Robinson also told the crowd that the right-wing movement had gone ‘mainstream,’ noting they couldn’t have pulled off such an event even three years ago. “The people of this country have been silenced for 20-30 years with the tag of racists…they now realise that that tag is dead: no one cares anymore with being labelled racist.”
Sunday’s march also attracted a wave of counter-protesters, many taking aim at Robinson specifically. Clashes broke out between the two groups but were quickly broken up by police.
Milo Yiannopoulos also took to the stage at Whitehall, while Canadian far-right activist Lauren Southern, who was banned from entering the UK last March for handing out leaflets with messages like “Allah is a gay God,” spoke via videolink.
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