Twitter suspended the account of Charlie Mullins, the founder of Pimlico Plumbers, after tweeting that “someone should kill” London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Sunday (August 27).
Mullins also tweeted minutes earlier, “I am on it, and it’s time to dump the Muslim mayor” before his account suspension when asked about the London mayorship campaign next year.
Twitter, rebranded under Elon Musk’s ownership as X, makes clear, “You may not wish, hope, or express desire for harm. This includes (but is not limited to) hoping for others to die,” despite criticism and concerns raised for changes for how the platform now handles hateful and harmful content more generally.
In statements given to The Telegraph and TalkTV, Mr Mullins apologised and made clear: “I unreservedly apologise and withdraw my remarks. I went too far. Twitter is right to take the action it did.”
TalkTV had earlier deleted a tweet that asked, “Did X overreact?” following Mr Mullins’s account suspension.
The cycling platform Road dot cc had also published an article about the account suspension the previous day.
Responding to the abhorrent tweets, Tell MAMA Director Iman Atta made clear in a statement, “We are appalled and horrified by Charlie Mullins’s tweet on 27 August suggesting that someone ‘should kill’ London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Statement from our Director Iman Atta after Charlie Mullins tweeted that someone 'should kill' Sadiq Khan and that it's 'time to drop the Muslim mayor'.
No politician should ever face death threats or identity-based abuse. Nor should such violent language be used in politics. pic.twitter.com/dDKUyEAvVi
— Tell MAMA UK (@TellMamaUK) August 31, 2023
No politician should ever face death threats or identity-based abuse. Nor should such menacing and violent language be used in political debates or discussions.
Mr Mullins also tweeted before his account suspension that it was time to ‘dump the Muslim mayor,’ which is also unacceptable language.
Mr Mullins has since apologised and withdrawn his horrendous remarks.”
Tell MAMA highlighted such concerns in our groundbreaking report ‘A Decade of anti-Muslim Hate’ that included alarming findings about how the platform had recanted warnings on dangerous links for overtly fascist websites, which contravenes existing rules in place since July 2020.
A second example further exposed ongoing gaps in the usage of the policy when concerning the far-right, including the removal of a warning link after Britain First returned to the platform last October and later gained organisational validation on the platform.