story: https://www.thenational.scot/news/24086599.uk-covid-inquiry-follows-downwiththesnp-twitter/
by 1DarkStarryNight
story: https://www.thenational.scot/news/24086599.uk-covid-inquiry-follows-downwiththesnp-twitter/
by 1DarkStarryNight
12 comments
Here’s the [National’s story](https://www.thenational.scot/news/24086599.uk-covid-inquiry-follows-downwiththesnp-twitter/):
>THE official account of the UK Covid Inquiry only follows one account on Twitter/X and it is called “DownWithTheSNP”.
>The official inquiry account, which has been verified as a “government or multilateral organisation” by the US social media firm since July 2022, has more than 22,600 followers.
>However, it only follows one account: @DownWithTheSNP.
>The account’s profile picture is a cartoon of Nicola Sturgeon dressed up to look like a burglar, with a caricature eyemask and bag of loot.
>
>Its bio states: “Just a bloke. Pro-Beer and Sports. Anti-SNP, Covid & Net-Zero Nonsense. Trust in God not government.”
>The last three posts from the account have all contained the phrase “#evilSturgeon”, with a post from Tuesday evening reading: “If it isn’t trending tonight it will tomorrow.”
>A second post from Tuesday evening read: “#EvilSturgeon evil /ē′vəl/ adjective. Morally bad or wrong; wicked. ‘an evil tyrant.’ Causing ruin, injury, or pain; harmful.”
>The National asked the Covid Inquiry why it was following the @DownWithTheSNP account on Wednesday morning. It was removed soon afterwards.
>The Covid Inquiry later responded to this paper’s request for comment, with a spokesperson saying the follow had been an “error”.
>The inquiry spokesperson said: “The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is independent, apolitical and only reaches conclusions once all the evidence has been thoroughly examined.
>”The inquiry’s @covidinquiryuk X account follows no other accounts – any prior follows were in error.”
>Once the story had been shared on social media, the DownWithTheSNP account responded saying “it happened”.
>They shared a screenshot showing the notification they had received when the UK Covid Inquiry first followed them. It also shared a second showing the “follows you” message displayed on the inquiry’s account.
>The news comes as Sturgeon, the former first minister, is set to give evidence to the Covid Inquiry at a hearing in Edinburgh. You can follow all the live updates here.
>The former SNP leader’s decision making and the extent to which she wielded sole control over the direction the Scottish Government took under her leadership are set to come under scrutiny.
>The deletion of WhatsApp messages and Government advice around retaining messages are also sure to be on the agenda as Jamie Dawson KC quizzes the former first minister.
>Humza Yousaf, the current First Minister who served as health secretary through the later stages of the pandemic, gave evidence to the inquiry last week.
Options are:
– The mask of the Covid Inquiry slipped, revealing their true desires to use the inquiry to take the evil SNP down, the latest action in a long line of establishment plots to sabotage the Independence movement; or
– Whoever was monitoring the account was scrolling through tweets targeted at them and accidently clicked follow on one of the accounts.
Jury’s out I suppose…
EDIT: Looks like r/scotland is leaning towards Option 1.
Fuuuuucking hell. That’s a bad look for an independent inquiry
Ah, we posted about this at the same time. Will delete my thread.
This doesn’t exactly bode well for the perceived impartiality of the proceedings.
That’s pretty fucking bad optics surely? Whoever did that could have just brought the whole investigation into disrepute. Incredibly fucking stupid.
Going to need an enquiry into the enquiry at this rate.
Independent 😂
I love it how this country is run on twitter. I wonder how that started, Trump maybe? Or was it before? Who knows, it just seems somewhat silly to me that everyone loses their shit about Twitter all the time.
Ultimately if she has done nothing wrong she really doesn’t have anything to fear with this inquiry. If she has, I don’t think she can expect them to be lenient – and to be honest I don’t think they should be on her or Boris & co
Most likely someone clicked follow from there rather than a personal account. Daft but fuck me the weight Twitter shite carries is scary. Cesspit of a place.
Haha. Flip, not a great look.
Way to undermine all the work of hundreds of people trying to look for lessons to learn for the next pandemic/crisis.
Dearie dearie me
Feels too silly to have been intentional but hey ho
Given Twitter’s lack of any oversight on accounts I’m betting this is not an official account at all and the usual National’s poor and biased journalism has’t bothered to check in favour of a sensational headline.
Do you really think an official account would include this – clearly the story is a typical cyber nat fuckup complaining about anything that it can:
“The account’s profile picture is a cartoon of Nicola Sturgeon dressed up to look like a burglar, with a caricature eyemask and bag of loot.
Its bio states: “Just a bloke. Pro-Beer and Sports. Anti-SNP, Covid & Net-Zero Nonsense. Trust in God not government.”
The last three posts from the account have all contained the phrase “#evilSturgeon”, with a post from Tuesday evening reading: “If it isn’t trending tonight it will tomorrow.””